
Qass, 
Book- 



/ 



BIBLE 

DEFENCE OF SLAVERY; 



ORIGIN FORTUNES, AND fflSTORY 



NEGRO RACE. 



BY REV. JOSIAH PRIEST, A.M. 



FIFTH EDITION — STEREOTYPED. 



GLASGOW, KY., 

PUBLISHBD BY REV. W. S. BROWN, M.D. 
1852. 



# 



.P91\ 



#■ 



PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 



In presenting the following work to the American 
public, no apologies are offered. We live under a 
Government which tolerates liberty of thought and 
freedom of the press, and in this expression of our 
honest views and feelings upon a subject relating to the 
general welfare of the country, we are but exercising 
a right which belongs to every American citizen. 
Observation and experience has taught us, that no man's 
opinions and principles pjain favor with the world by 
empty apologies and useless excuses; but, that they are 
generally received or rejected, as they should be, 
according as they possess merit or demerit. It is a 
pleasing reflection, that the age of proscription for 
opinion's sake, is past, we trust, never again to return ; 
and that the unrestricted interchange of thought and 
sentiment, which is permitted by the liberal genius of 



m- 



VI PUBLISHER S PREFACE 

suspicion upon those time-honored institutions which 
have commanded the world's admiration, and by which 
ate secured to us the richest blessings of civil and 
religious liberty. Is it not time, then, that the South 
should begin to defend herself against the aggressions of 
these time-serving votaries of error and fanaticism, and 
show to the world that her peculiar policy and institutions 
are in harmony with the genius of republicanism, and the 
spirit of true Christianity] Believing that such is her 
true policy, and that this proposition is much more 
consistent and reasonable, as well as more easily 
established than its converse, we have been induced to 
give publicity to the following pages in vindication of 
Southern rights and institutions. 

Although we believe that the institution of slavery 
received " the sanction of the Almighty in the Patriarchal 
age ;" " that it was incorporated into the only national 
constitution which ever emanated from God ;" '• that its 
legality was recognized, and its relative duties regulated 
by our Saviour, when upon earth ;" that it was established 
in wisdom, and has been wisely continued through all 
ages, and handed down to us in mercy; and that the 
relation of master and servant harmonizes strictly with 
the best interests of the inferior or African race in 
particular, in securing to him that protection and support 
which his native imbecility of intellect disqualifies him 
from securing for himself; yet do we most cordially 
reprobate any abuse of the relation by the superior 



PUBLISHER S PREFACE. VU 

power, or any undue exercise of authority, by the master 
over the slave — holding it to be an unwavering, uncom- 
promising truth, that a fearful retribution is in reservation 
for all the violators of the wisely-established decrees of 
God, in this respect. There are certain obligations and 
duties which every master owes to his slave, that are aS 
binding and indispensable as are the duties and obligations 
which he owes to his God, his country, or himself. These 
discharged, in accordance with the will of high Heaven, 
and the mere fact of being a slaveholder will not, in our 
humble judgment, debar a man from an entrance into 
that " house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
Our individual views on the subject of a national 
system of colonization, as applicable to the free black 
population of the United States, may be regarded, at first 
sight, perhaps, as somewhat novel, and wanting in the 
essential qualities of age and precedent, or experience ; 
but the reader may rest assured, that they have been 
submitted to the inspection of many of our prominent 
citizens and leading statesmen, and have received their 
unqualified approval, without exception. The existence 
of fi'ee blacks in any community, whether free or slave, 
is universally admitted to be an evil of no minor 
consideration. Their removal, therefore, is a matter 
deeply affecting the interests and well-being of both races. 
Their present number and natural increase, places this 
beyond the reach of individual enterprise. The resources 
of the general government must, therefore, be brought 



VUl PUBLISHER S PREFACE. 

into requisition in the removal of this, as well as any 
other evil of a general or national character. How this 
may be done in this case, in a manner harmonizing with 
the ti'ue interests of both races, is a theme certainly not 
unworthy the candid consideration of any American 
citizen. 

In the work of Mr. Priest, on the subject of *' Slavery, 
as it relates to the Negro, or African Race, Examined 
in the Light of Circumstances, History, and the Holy 
Scriptures; with an Account of the Black Man's 
Color, Causes of his State of Servitude, and Traces 
of his Character, as well in Ancient as in Modern Times, 
with Strictures on Abolitionism," the reader may 
confidently expect to find a work of great research and 
ability — one of deep interest, and well worthy his candid 
perusal. The author has sought, in the oracles of God, 
in authentic history, and in the analogies of nature, the key 
to the mystery of the degradation, through the unchronicled 
ages of the past, of the negro race. The fact of the 
inferiority and consequent subordination of the black race 
to the white, being in accordance with the will of the 
Supreme Ruler of the universe, is not like a mathematical 
problem, susceptible of absolute demonstration; yet we 
think the readers of this work will acknowledge that the 
author has let in a flood of light upon this deeply 
interesting subject, through the mist in which ignorance 
and misguided sympathy has enveloped it. Himself a 
Northern man, prejudiced, as he admits, in his early 



PUBLISHEK S TREFACE. 



IX 



education, against tlie institution, the conclusion at which 
he anives, supported as they are by the most powerful 
train of reasoning, cannot fail to check the suicidal 
progress of that pseudo-philanthropy, yclept " modern 
abolitionism." 



Glasgow, Ky., April 21th, 1850. 



PREFACE. 

Than a knowledge of the races and nations of men, who 
have peopled the globe since it was created, there can be 
no subject more interesting. With a view to an elucidation 
of this description, wc present the work before us, in which 
an attempt is made to give, in some measure, a history of the 
origin^ character, and fortunes, of the negro portion of 
mankind. 

In pursuit of this object we hope there needs no apology, 
because we have found it necessary to resort to the Holy 
Scriptures for much important information which relates to 
our design, as it is well known that those parts of that book 
which were written by Moses are the eldest writings of the 
numan race now extant, and relate to the very first opera- 
tions of the human race after the flood. As corroboratory 
of the developments of that miraculous book, we have also 
resorted to ancient and modern history, to travels, narra- 
tives, &c., which go to aid us in the research. 

As to the origin of the negro man, we have, in our cogi- 
tations, recollected several curious opinions relative to the 
subject, which we have thought proper to present, on account 
of their wild and extravagant character, as follows : 

Some have queried, whether the mother of the first negvo 
man might not have been frightened by some hideous black 
monster of the antediluvian woods — as in the first ages of 
the world there were many terrible beasts of the wilderness 
roaming about, whose races are now extinct. There is one 
creature which existed theri, and is not yet extinct, whose 
appearance, in its native haunts, is very frightful to behold ; 
and this is the black ourang-outang, of which animal there 
are individuals known to have attained the enormous height 



IV 



PREFACj 



of seven feet, covered entirely with shining black hair. 
The strange effects of fright on the offspring of mothers, is 
a well known phenomenon in the physiological history of 
man. Thus, as some have supposed, the negro race was 
produced, forming an entire new class of human beings, and 
distinguished from the nature, color, and character of the 
parents, by a fright of the mother. 

Others have seemed to believe, that, in the very first ages 
of the planet, and long before the creation of Adam, there 
existed a race of animals, having a resemblance to man, as 
has the ourang-outang, but of gigantic stature, as well as 
power, dwelling in communion with other beasts and mon- 
sters of that time. From this family of animals, it has been 
supposed that the negro race was derived, and brought for- 
ward by the continual mutations of nature, passing from 
one change to another in pursuit of maturity, with all things 
else, arriving at last to their highest point, as exhibited in the 
presence of the black or negro nations. 

It has also been believed, that, at a very early period of 
time, some community of men have been so situated, in rela- 
tion to climate, food, and other circumstances, as to have 
been changed from their original stamp of complexion and 
character, to that of perfect blacks, thus originating the 
negro family of man. 

Some have imagined, that the origin of the race was a 
disease of the skin, which, being of an incurable nature, 
formed at length a radical character, and thus produced 
this people. 

Many have believed, that there was at first as many fa- 
thers and mothers created as there are novv different races of 
men, from whom have descended the red, the white, the 
black, the brown, and the yellow tribes of the human race, 
discarding the account given in the Scriptures of there hav- 
ing been but one pair of human beings created. 



PREFACE. V 

Others have imagined, that the mark set upon Cain by 
the Divine Power, for the crime of homicide, was that of 
jet, which not only changed the color of his body, but ex 
tended to the blood and the whole of his physical being, 
thus originating the negro race, a remnant of which they 
suppose, by means of some craft, or rather outrode the flood, 
anchoring on some lofty mountain, subsisting on the float- 
ing carcasses of the drowned animals till the earth was dried 
again. 

Thus many have mused on the subject of the origin of 
the negro race. But we reject all these schemes as the 
baseless hallucinations of vissionaries, even the mooted and 
equally absurb problem that climate, or any other contin- 
gency, became the origin of that people, and affirm that a 
cause of an entire different description from all these gave 
birth to the race, an account of which we shall give in the 
work. 

As to the mental character of the black nations, consid- 
ered collectively, we have found them, in all ages, since 
their appearance on the earth, of but small account when 
compared with the other races of men, the red and white. 

In publishing our opinions, as presented in this work, we 
have been moved thereto, by the operations of conflicting 
principles, as held by abolitionists and anli-abolilionists, 
throughout the entire United States, believing that light 
was necessary, in order to learn the truth respecting the 
people in question, namely, the negro race. 

We are also anxious to ascertain the cause of this class 
of mankind being enslaved, in the loio and degraded sense 
of the word. 

As to the history of the black portion of the human race 
it has occupied the pens of more writers than one ; on which 
account we feel that we are not alone in this attempt, and, 
also, that we have advanced some nexc^ and not uninteresting, 



VI PREFACE. 

opinions, with respect to the ti7ne and the occasion of the 
production of the first negro man. 

Together with an account of the origin of this people, 
we have not forgotten to inquire something respecting the 
native mental abilities of the race, and whether created 
equal in that and other particulars with other men. We 
have, also, had something to say about exalting them in this 
country to political and social equality with the other citi- 
zens of the United States, and whether, were the whites and 
blacks to become amalgamatod, it would be a desirable ob- 
ject, with many other matters of interest. 

We have found the history of this race somewhat of a 
difficult character to describe, as it is far more hidden and 
obscure than the history of either the red or white race ; yet 
we believe that some progress, in this respect, is made in 
the work. 

Thus, with but few prefatory remarks, we submit our 
opinions, believing that which we have advanced to be in- 
dubitable, however repugnant to the conceptions of man}', 
who fancy they see in the negro's mind the germs of a 
prodigious mental power, notwithstanding all the evidence 
to the contrary, which has witnessed against them for thous- 
ands of years, showing that a pall of darkness and obscuri- 
ty, not occasioned by the acts or the influence of the othei 
races, has rested on the whole being of this people, induced 
'97/ a higher power than that of man. 

As was tlie deep, when nature first was made, 
And earth's foundations in the waters laid — 
When darkness reign'd, the reahn of ancient night, 
When God sent fortli liis Word, and there was light; 
So is the race of Ham, a darkling sea, 
Which now invites the truth, that tight may be, 
O'er which, if we have sent a single raij. 
Then have we gain'd our aim, and look for day. 

THE AUTHOR. 



INDEI. 



FIRST SECTION. 

Complexion of the Parents of the Human Race; Kind of earth 
ilan was made of; Power of the Hebrew Language in giving 
Names; Adam and Eve both called Adam by the Creator; Com- 
plexion of the Antediluvians; Curious Chronology of the Holy 
Seed, from Adam to Jacob, the immediate Head of the Jewish 
Tribes; The opinions of some that Adam was created black, re- 
futed; Personal Appearance of Adam and Eve, in Paradise, be- 
fore the Fall; With many other Curious Matters, 15 



SECOND SECTION. 

Origin of the Negro Race; Argument to ascertain this; Causes of 
the OTeat varieties of Human Complexion; Doctrine of Climates 
and Local Causes to produce such varieties refuted; Impossibility 
of Human Parents producing any other complexion than their 
own without a miracle; Proofs that white, black and red men are 
found in the hottest regions of the globe, and have been thus in 
the same latitudes for thousands of years; No Negroes on the 
earth till many hundred years after Adam's creation; The pre- 
cise time of their origin, when and where; No climate forms, or 
causes the origin of human characters; Birth of the first white 
man. when and where; No white man on the earth till many 
hundred years after Adam's creation ; Argument to ascertain this; 
The Hebrew Language that of Adam, as well as of Noah and 
the Patriarchs; Meaning of the word Ham; Of Japheth and 
Shem ; Reasons why Goil produced men of different constitutions 
and colors than had the first man; Willi many other curious mat- 
ters, S5 



THIKD SECTION. 

Adaptation of men and animals to the countries and circumstances 
of their being; Early settlements of the first nations after tha 
flood; Three races of men, black, red and white, in the family of 
Noah; Great difference between the formations of the bodies of 
white men and negroes; reasons why the skulls of black men are 
thicker than those of the whites; These differences noticed by an- 
cient Hifitorians; Negroes not as liable to infectious diseases aa 



Vlll 



INDEX. 



■white men; interesting notice by Herodotus, respecting tbe headj 
of negro men; Curious formation of their feet; Reasons "why 
Extraordinary fact respecting the Negro's skin being filled with 
myriads of little cups of water; The reasoas why; With many 
other curious matters, 47 



FOURTH SECTION. 

Proof of the existence of the Negro race too near the time of Noah, 
and in his neighborhood, to allow of the doctrine of climate to 
have been the cause of this; Remarks of David in the Book of 
Psalms, on this subject; In the Book of Chronicles on this sub- 
ject; In the Book of Genesis on this subject; Names of all the sons 
of Ham, the first Negro; The countries they settled, after the ruin 
of the Tower of Nimrod; respecting the color of the Egy|)tians; 
Herodotus's account of this matter, as well as of the color of all 
Africans of his age; Proofs that they were always black, from 
the very beginning of their existence; Curious account of the 
wife of Moses; Proofs of her being a Negress, and of the race of 
Ham; Statement of the prophet Jeremiah, that Ethiopians were 
black; If the three sous of Noah were all of the same complex- 
ion, then follow certain results, fatal to the veracity of the Scrip- 
tures; Hercules; Was Nimrod the grandson of Noah, and the 
origin of all the fabled Herculeses of all the early nations; Some 
curious traditions of African authority, respecting their own ori- 
gin; With many other curious matters, 54 



FIFTH SECTION. 

The three sons of Noah, all bom more than a hundred years before 
the Flood, aided in building the Ark; Reasons why the Divine 
Being produced two new races of men different from Adam; 
Change of the climates of the Globe eflbcted by the Flood; Beauty 
of the earth before the Flood; Wife of Ham and tlie wives of the 
other sons of Noah; Who they were; Respecting straight-haired 
black men; The cause. Ham, their father having been woolly- 
headed; Egyptian mummies; One man only between Noah and 
Adam; Landing of the Ark on a mountain; Noah descends; 
Plants a vineyard; Drinks new wine; Falls asleep; Ham's con- 
duct on the occasion; Noah's curse of the whole race of Ham; 
Description of Mount Ararat; The first tents of Noah; Early 
settlements at the foot of the mountain; Plate of the family of 
Noah, showing the different complexions of his sons; Arguments 
and reasons against the amalgamation of the races at first; Argu- 
ments that Noah's curse of Ham was God's judicial decree that 
slavery was thus entailed upon the Negro race; Character of Ham, 
from his youth till the curse; Argument that the curse was not a 
aiere prophesy, but a decree judicial, 76 



INDEX. 



VS. 



SIXTH SECTION. 

Proofs from the Scriptures, that the curse of Noah upon the race of 
Ham, as a, judicial act, is indorsed bjthe law of Moses; Compar- 
ative view of all the orders of servants among the Jews, as the 
hired Hebrew servant, the bought Hebrew servant, the voluntary 
Hebrew sei-vant, and the Negro or Canaanite slave; Remarks on 
the subject of the strangers, of whom the Jeyfsniight take usury, 
and of whom they might not take asury; Eespecting who the 
strangers were, who they should not enslave, or use as bondmen; 
A seeming contradiction in the law on this subject reconciled; 
Perputuarslaves to be bought of the Negro heathen of old Ca- 
naan, as directed by the law; Strictures on Abolitionist opinions, 
respecting the meaning of the law relative to servants; Character 
of Noah and Lot rescued from abolitionist aspersions; Strictures 
on the opinions of abolitionists, respecting the word buy, as ap- 
plied to the purchase of bondmen, in the law of Moses, with other 
matters of their setting forth; Difference between the condition of 
Hebrew servants and their Canaanite slaves, with respect to the 
jubilees, and other matters; Proofs that the Hebrews bought and 
sold Negro slaves under the sanction of the law — even going to 
Africa for that purpose; Enslaving of the persons of the Amaiek- 
ites under the eye of Moses; slaves of the Patriarchs bought with 
money; A curious query of abolitionists answered; "With many 
other matters, 106 



SEVENTH SECTION 

Arguments and positions of abolitionists favoring a belief that the 
Scriptures recognize the negro man as being equal with the other 
races, in point of blood and otherwise, refuted; Mark of Cain; 
What it was; No black men or negroes before the flood except 
one; Difference between the secreting power of the blood of white 
and negro men; Evidences that the Supreme Being puts a higher 
estimate on white than on black, as colors or complexions; Con- 
sent to this difference by tlie blacks themselves, though incident- 
ally given, according to the accounts of travelers in Africa; A 
curious argument of abolitioiusts in favor of negro equality re- 
plied to, with many other interesting matters, . . . " 160 



EIGHTH SECTION. 

Moral and civil character of the negro race; Acts of the negro Sod- 
omites; Their lewdness, <fec.; Proofs from many authors respect- 
ing tlieir amours with dumb beasts; As well from the Scriptures; 
Of this the Canaanites were guilty; as well as the Egyptians; 
Moses's testimony to this : Hcrodotus's testimony from his own 
observations when in Egypt ; Gates's testimony , Sonnini's testi- 



INDEX. 

mony; Testimony of the Prophet Ezekiel; Curious sexual forma- 
tion of the B.egro race ; Lewd customs of the ancient Egyptians 
about their temples, as seen by Herodotus; Some traits of char- 
acter among the negroes of all countries at the present time, in 
America, and everywhere; Dreadful practices of the women of 
Egypt; Writer's apology for plain writing on matters of this de- 
scription; Proofs that Jezebel and all her priests were black, with 
some account of her character as a negress and a wanton; account 
of automaton images made for lewd purposes by the women of 
those times; Pictures and images of the Canaanites; Influence of 
these doings of the negroes of those ages on the Hebrews; Curious 
reason of the Jewish Rabbi why the dogs would not eat the head 
and hands of Jezebel; Horrid customs of the African negroes; 
Respecting the marriages of their young women, as related by 
Herodotus; Corresponding character of the Africans now in these 
particulars, as related by travelers; Rollin's testimony to the 
same thing, 174 



NINTH SECTION. 

Pretended mental equality of the negro race with white men re- 
futed, as held by abolitionists; Comparative view of the races, as 
to their doings in the world; Proofs that the ancient Egyptians, 
nor any of the negro nations, were not the authors of either arts 
or sciences; Proofs that the arts and sciences, comprehending a 
knowledge of letters, were known before the flood, and in the 
house of Noah, and by the first patriarchs; Curious discoveries 
made in the foundations of the tower of Babel by Sir Robert 
Ker Porter; A knowledge of letters since the flood derived from 
the first patriarchs, and not from the Phoenician blacks; but little 
advances made in architecture by the first Egy]3tians, till after 
Solomon; The pyramids built by the shepherdf kings, a race of 
copper-colored men of the blood of Shera, and not by the blacks 
of Egypt; For thousands of years the tribes of Africa have made 
no advances in civilization; The reasons of this; Works of the 
Canaanites, as it related to architecture, derived from the Eu- 
phrates, or the example of the Shemites, and the people of Ja- 
pheth; During the whole history of negro Carthage, they made no 
advances in literature; Rapine, plunder, and dealing in slaves, 
being their trade; Architectural works of the races of Shem and 
Japheth long before the tower was built, or the negroes exit to 
Africa; Near resemblance of the Simia race as the ourang-outang, 
and many of the Africans; Respecting their appetites; Cannibal- 
ism, tfec, in all ages; Insensibilities of the negroes to bodily pain; 
Meanness of the negro spirit; Their cruelties to their slaves; With 
many otlier curious matters, 203 



INDEX. 



TENTH SECTION. 

The subject of the ainalgamation of the white and negro races ejE- 
amined; which event, by some men, seems to be greatly desired; 
The voice of God, in nature, against it; Horrid results, were the 
amalgamation of the races to become universal; Lowering of the 
present standard of the powers of the human mind; Changes in 
the physical formation of the human body, as extant in the na- 
tions of white men, in their approximation to the form of the 
ourang-outang, through the influence of negro amalgamation," 
Deterioration of the mental image of God, as given to the keep- 
ing of the white race; Negroes' brains found to be less in u-eignt 
and measure than the white man's; Dodging of abolitionists on 
this question; Anticipations of some men that amalgamation will 
finally become universal, so as to put down slavery in this way; 
Slavery among the African negroes before they knew white men; 
Stealing each other; Murdering of children among them; Many 
facts respecting the near approach of various negro tribes to the 
form of the ourang-outang; Indifference to pain, when under sur- 
gical operations; Corresponding insensibility of the mind, with 
respect to the moral feelings of the heart, as well as to the suffer- 
ings of others; Cruelty to the aged and the sick; Pretended ob- 
sequiousness of some abolitionists to negroes, with a view, as 
they say, to their exaltation; Jiatural enmity between negroes 
ana white men, 250 



ELEVENTH SECTION. 

Inquiries whether the statements of Noah, respecting the race of 
J apheth, or the white nations, enslaving the descendants of Ham, 
have been fulfilled, and are now in progress to that effect; Num- 
ber of the sons of Japheth; Their great power; Countries they 
settled at first; Nations now known of that progeny; First cities 
built by them, which w;\s earlier than any of the others; Descrip- 
tion of the first operatioiis of men near Ararat, during Noah's 
lifetime after the flood; Respecting Melchisedek, who he was, 
which is in connection with tlic subject; Travels of Shem among 
the first settlements; Worsliip of Baal, or the fly god, now among 
the Africans; Nimrod and tlio wild beasts, with a plate; Shem, 
the son of Noah, was Melchisedek Seyoxs, the first city of man- 
kind after the flood,, built by the whites; First instances on a 
great scale of white men enslaving the race of Ham in ancient 
times, a.nd respecting its continuance; Certainty of the fulfillment 
of God's decrees, and the veracity of the Scriptures; Strictures 
on the opinions of abolitionists; Their opposition to the Bible if 
it upholds slavery; Views of St. Paul respecting negro slavery, as 
eet forth in the New Testament; Vast numbers of slaves in the 
Roman empire in St. Paul's time; Their dreadful condition; Cu- 
rious opinion of abolitionists, as a reason why Christ did not re- 
prove slavery; Nimrod and the tower, with other matters, .... 272 



xu 



INDEX. 



TWELFTH SECTION. 

Inquiries -vrliether the Scriptures have, either in the Old or New 
Testaments, abolished slavery, as abolitionists assert that they 
have; Query, if they never sanctioned it, how could they abolish 
it? The famous passage of Isaiah, chap. Iviii, on which aboli- 
tionists found their argument in favor of the scriptural abolish- 
ment of slavery, examined, and found to have no allusion to the 
subject; all the Jews, their elders, nobles and kings, enslaved the 
race unreproved; Reproofs of the prophets, for the Jews enslaving 
their own people beyond the jubilees, but not the negroes; The 
famous passage of Exod. xxi, 16, which respects the stealing o-f a 
man to enslave, or to sell him, examined, and found to have no 
allusion to negroes, while abolitionists assert that it does; Isaiah's 
opinion respecting the Jews enslaving their enemies, chap, xiv, 2; 
Abolition argument against- slavery, founded on the law of love 
toward our neiglibor, replied to; Abolition argument, charging 
the institution of negro slavery with an attempt to usurp the sor- 
creignty of God over the souls of slaves, replied to, 320 



THIRTEENTH SECTION. 

A further exhibition of the opinions and doings of abolitionists in 
America; Consequences, if they carry their plans into effect; Sym- 
pathy is the lever by which they operate; Men should beware 
how they array themselves against the decrees of God; Mysterious 
providences of God toward man; Proposal to abolitionists, by 
the author, to assail other mysterious providences of God, as well 
as the one which respects negro servitude; Keckless opinions of 
abolitionists respecting the southern states; Effects of freeing the 
negroes in the British West India Islands; Effects, were the slaves 
of the southern states freed all at once; Proofs respecting the in- 
sincerity of English philanthropy toward enslaved negroes, and 
of their non-reliance upon the labor of freed slaves; Proofs of a 
suspicion that English vessels are now engaged in getting slaves 
from the interior of Africa, as formerly; Consequences, should 
the Union become divided on the slave qiiestion; Great posses- 
sions and power of the English all round America; Their de- 
signs; Intended possession of the Oregon territory; Cruelties of 
the English in India, where they have conquered; Coalescing of 
American abolitionists with the English, on the suWect of Amer- 
ican negro slavery, as shown in their speeches in London, with 
many other matters, 350 



FOURTEENTH SECTION. 

Replies to various abolition questions proposed to the author; Cir- 
cumstances in which men find themselves possessed of slaves be- 
yond their control, which is held to be God's providence in se- 



INDKX. 



XII] 



curing negro slavery, in agreement with his decree by !N'oah; Dif- 
ference of negro sensibilities from tliat of the "whites, on being 
separated from wives and children, proven by facts; Argument 
of abolitionists in favor of negro equality, founded on God's 
having given the rule of all animals, as much to the blacks as to 
the whites, replied to; Ham and Nimrod's opposition to the re- 
ligion of Noali, founded on their hatred to him, on account of the 
curse, who originated idolatry in the world; None but negroes en- 
gaged in the project of the tower; Happiness and well-being of 
the negro race seem to lie in the direction of the wliite man's con- 
trol; Fates of all the ancient negro kingdoms; Different estimate 
of the negro, respecting human liberty and its uses, from the 
white man; The races set out, after the flood, with equal oppor- 
tunities, but who has won the prize? Practical undervaluing of 
the negro character by abolitionists; A curious position of abo- 
litionists, which supposes the hiring out of the race of Ham 
to the other races would fulfill Noah's curse, replied to; a certain 
great objection of abolitionists to slavery, which charges owners 
of slaves of giving them no wages, replied to; The patriarch, nor 
did the Jew, pay slaves any wages as hired men, with many 
other matters, 374 



FIFTEENTH SECTION. 

That the Gospel doctrines and their tendencies is against negro slav 
ery, as asserted by abolitionists, shown to be a mistake; Exami- 
nation of the golden rule of our Savior, in relation to this matter; 
That the condition of slaves among the Jews was a condition of 
comparative comfort, as is asserted by abolitionists, refuted; 
Care of slaves, as far back in time as the days of Job and Mra- 
hain; The subject oi judicial law and the law of love examined, 
in relation to negro slavery, and are found to harmonize; The 
great and stronghold of abolitionism in support of negro equali- 
ty, and the propriety of amalgamation by marriages, founded on 
God's striking Miriam, the sister of Moses, with leprosy, because 
she found fault with her brother for having married an ^Ethiopian 
woman, overturned and shown to be blasphemous; Curious fact 
of the blood of the negro race being guarded against, as affecting 
the blood of the line through which the Messiah was to come; 
First preaching of the Gospel directed to the countries inhabited 
by white men, not negroes; This wa.s done afterward; All the 
present arts of the world nearly of white men's invention, not ne- 
groes', with many other deeply interesting subjects, 396 



ORIGIN 



HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



FIRST SECTION. 

Complexion of the Parents of the Human Race — Kind of Earth 
Man was made of — Power of the Hebrew Language in giving 
Names — Adam and Eve both called ^dani by the Creator — Com- 
plexion of the Antediluvians — Curious Chronology of the Holy 
Seed, from Adam to Jacob, the immediate Head of the Jewish 
Tribes — The opinions of some that Adam was created black, re- 
futed — Personal Appearance of Adam and Eve, in Paradise, before 
the Fall — With many other curious matters. 

That we may elucidate the subjects alluded to 
on the title page of this work, it is of importance to 
ascend very high toward the beginning of time in 
this investigation, even up to the creation of the first 
human pair. By this method, and this only, do we 
hope to arrive at length to a knowledge of the desir- 
ed objects. 

To ascertain the true origin of the Negro, or Afri- 
can race, at the very threshold of the M^ork, is ex- 
ceedingly appropriate, as, without such a discovery, 
we shall appear to wander where no light shines to 
illume the way, amidst the mazes of ancient times. 

How often do we hear questions like the following? 
From whence came the Ethiopian, or black man? 



16 ORIGIN. CHARACTER, AND 

Who was his father? Did he spring from Adam, or 
some other race ? Can it be, that from one and the 
same source, the white, black and red portions of 
mankind proceeded, with all the hues and shades 
of complexion which mark the human race? If so, 
is it not exceedingly mysterious that there is not now, 
nor never has been, the occurrence of a variety so 
marked and distinctive, as is black, white and red, 
proceeding from the same parents naturallyl Surely, 
if nature, in the beginning, or in the first ages, pro- 
duced from the same origin diflerent races of men, as 
to their complexions and physical constitutions, she 
ought to produce the same, in these later ages, in 
order to be consistent with herself in tJiis particular, 
as she is known to be in all others. These are 
questions the first to arise, whenever this subject 
is referred to, by the inquisitive and the lovers of 
knowledge. 

But as we pass in the prosecution of the "^'ork, we 
hope to answer the above queries, and show the 
reader the true origin of the negro race, as well as 
that of the others, the white and red — there having 
been, in reality, but these three on the earth, as the 
yelloio and the brown, with all the other shades, are 
but derived from an amalgamation of the three oth- 
ers, which were prioi' and radical, as we shall show 
in due order. 

On this subject, nature, or rather God in nature, 
has instructed us, that without the intervention of 
Divine power, there could, and never would have 
been, but otie general complexion of the people of 
the globe, and that o?ie complexion would have been 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



17 



like the first parents, whatever tliat complexion was. 
If tlie first two of human kind were created white, 
they could never have been the parents of black and 
red men. If they were created red, they could nev- 
er have been the parents of black and ^vJiite men. If 
they were created black, they could never have been 
the parents of rvJiiie and red men, as they could nat- 
urally procreate only their own complexion. 

Since the creation of man upon the earth, there 
never was produced from the same parents a variety 
of complexion (except in the case of the Albino's pro- 
duction, which is noio considered to be only the ef- 
fect of disease); this particular, the producing of 
varieties, is a trait of the nafure of beasts, but not of 
man, who, in this particular, are more fixed, being 
created in a way which has set him above the winds 
and the weather, as it relates to his physical being. 

Here it is proper to inquire what then was the com- 
plexion of the two first of the human race, Adam and 
Plve, and the antediluvian world, their olfspring? 

In relation to this extremely curious, as Avell as 
interesting subject, we shall refer first to a very an 
cient, and a very learned historian, namely, Flavius 
JosEPHUs, who says, in his work on the Antiquities 
of the Jews, Book i, p. 12, that Ada?}i, the first man, 
was created red. The following are his words: 
"God took dust from the ground and formed man, 
and inserted in him a spirit and a soul. This man 
was called Adam, which, in the Hebrew tongue, sig- 
nifies one that is red, because he was formed of red 
earth, compounded together, for of that kind is vir- 
giyi or true earth. 
1* 



18 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER; AND 



The kind of earth which Josephus calls virgin, or 
pure earth, was, no doubt, of a very peculiar charac- 
ter and appearance, or he would not have called it 
pure or virgin earth, in distinction from all the other 
earths of the globe, of which it is said, that there 
are nine. How this man came by a knowledge of 
this circumstance, we cannot tell, except he derived 
it from the term Adam, or from a tradition of the pa- 
triarchs arising out of that circumstance, his creation 
from red earth, and handed down from the house of 
Noah. 

For this very reason, doubtless, it was written by 
Moses, Gen. v, 2, that God called the two parents of 
the human race by but one name, which was that of 
Adam, in which name was comprehended, as well 
their 7iatnres as their complexion. God did not give 
the first woman the name of Eve ; it was Adam who 
did this, when he saw that she was to become the 
mother of all the human race. Adam was the name 
which God gave to the woman as well as to the man 
at first, as shown above from the text of Moses. 

This circumstance should not be allowed to pass 
till it shall have made its due impression upon the 
mind of the reader, which is as follows : '^Male and 
female created He them ; and blessed them, and call- 
ed their name Adam, in the day when they were 
created." 

In accordance with this statement of Josephus, in 
rendering a reason tvhi/ God called the two first hu- 
man beings by but one name, and that name being 
Adam, or the j^ed man and woman, we find that the 
Hebrew language establishes that the words Adam, 



fortunp:s, of the negro race. 19 

Ada?nah, Adami, and AdmaJt. have all a similar 
meaniiig. 

First— Adam, as above, signifies earthy man, red ; 
second — Adamah, signifies red earth, or blood ; 
third — Adami, signifies my man red, earthy, himiati; 
fourtli — Admah, signifies earthy, red, or bloody ; all 
of which words are of the same class, and spring 
from the same root, which was Adam, signifying red^ 
or copper color. 

From a view of this fact, it is difficult to account 
for the reason of the name of the first man and wo- 
man, unless they were created red, instead of white 
or -black, as it is well known that the Hebrew lan- 
guage is governed in its power of naming visible ex- 
istences, as of animals, fowls, fishes, &.c., by their 
appearances or natures, and frequently by both, as 
in the case of the name Adam, which not only repre- 
sented the hue of his skin, but that also of his intcl- 
lechial existence or human natitre. 

Thus this Jewish historian, as well as the genius • 
of the Hebrew language, furnishes us with a clue, 
like the golden thread in the labyrinth of the subter- 
ranean palace of ancioit Thebes, leading to the 
right conclusion on this subject, namely, that Adam, 
with all the antediluvian race, were I'ed, or a copper 
colored people. 

But on this subject there is other testimony corrob- 
orative of the above, though but incidentally afford- 
ed, and yet is of the highest possible authority. This 
evidence is found in the writings of Moses, in the 
book of Genesis, chapters five and eleven. In this 
book is written, by a competent hand, a brief, yet 



20 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

perfect, history of the cosmogony of the earth, as 
well as a narrative of the births and deaths of the 
patriarchs, from the beginning to the time in which 
he lived, a lapse of years consisting of 2553, and 
about 1481 years before the birth of Josephus, who 
was a mere lad at the time of Christ's crucifixion. 

This incidental evidence, in relation to the belief 
that Adam was created red, is afforded by Moses, in 
tracing the genealogical descent of one of the sons 
of Adam, namely, that of Seth, from his fathej 
down to the patriarch Jacob, who was the immediate 
progenitor of the twelve tribes of the house of Israel. 

Now, as the Jews are rec?, or a dark copper colored 
race, in their pure and unamalgamated condition, 
aids in proving that Adam was also of the same com^ 
plexion, because Seth, dinimmediate son of Adam and 
Eve, was the direct progenitor of the Hebrew, or 
Jewish people, commonly called the lineage of the 
holy seed. See Genesis, as above alluded to, v and 
xi ; also, chapters xxi, xxv and xxxv, where the true 
genealogy of that race is traced out, coming down 
from Adam to Noah, then from Noah to Abraham, 
and from thence to Jacob, the head of the twelve 
tribes of the Jews. 

To please the curious, we will give an extract from 
those chapters of the book of Gen. v, xi, xxi, xxv, 
xxxv, respecting this genealogy, which is as follows: 

Seth, the son of Adam, was the father of Enos, 
who was the father of Cainan, who was the father 
of Mahalaleel, who was the father of Jared, who 
was the father of Enoch, who was the father of 
Methuselah, who was the father of Immech, who 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 21 

was the father of Noah, who was the father of Shem, 
who was the father of Arphaxad, who was the 
father of Sal ah, who was the father of Eber, who 
was the father of Peleg, who was the father of Reu, 
who was the father of Serug, who was the father 
of Nahor, who was the father of Terah, v/ho was 
the father of Abraham, who was the father of Isaac, 
who was the father of Jacob, who was the father of 
the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus the genealogy 
of the descent of the Jews is made out, and as it is 
well known that the Jews, in their pure and unamal- 
gamated state, are red, or copper colored, we prove, 
by this fact, in connection with the foregoing evi- 
dence, that the antediluvians, with the father of the 
human race, were red men and women. 

But, if it is necessary to add any other cn'cum- 
stance, corroborative of the above conclusion, we 
may mention that the Arabs, or Ishmaelites, are red, 
or copper colored, as well as the Jews, and are alike 
the descendants of Abraham, who was of the race of 
Shem, as above shown, one of the sons of Noah. 

In the existence of the Arabs, we have a tangible 
and an abiding evidence, that the Jews were a people 
who were copper colored, as the Arabs are brethren 
of the Jews, and have never mixed their blood with 
that of other people as much as the Jews have. The 
reason why they have not, is t?ie peculiar location of 
their country, it being situated along the eastern 
coast of the Red Sea in Asia Minor, and is an almost 
unapproachable desert of sand, in the very heart of 
Arabia, where, from the remotest ages, they have 
subsisted in wandering hordes, living, many of their 



22 ORGIN. CHARACTER, AND 



tribes, wholly by rapine and plunder, amalgamating 
but little with other nations, who have been deterred 
from conquerhig the country by the horrid desert and 
storms of flying sand, so that they have remained a 
distinct aboriginal people from the age of Abraham 
and Ishmael, the son of Abraham, in the very face 
of all the surrounding coimtries, the same in every 
age. 

Thus, from the foregoing facts, we believe it is 
made clear that the complexion qf Adam, Eve, and 
the antediluvians, v/as neither black nor white, but 
red only. 

Some, however, and persons of high reputation, 
too, have imagined that Adam was created Mack, and 
that his .descendants have, in many cases and coun- 
tries, been changed into other hues and complexions 
by the action of the elements. But had this been 
the fact, Adam would not have been called Adam; 
some other word or appellation would have been his 
name, as Ave shall further show bye and bye. 

In relation to tJiis subject, should the reader desire 
to know why we liave followed the line or genealo- 
gy of ^etli^ the third son of Adam, when the Scrip- 
tures speak of two other sons, and Jewish history 
of at least thirty, and of as many daughters, why, 
therefore, select this Seth iri preference to all tlie 
others? The answer is, the descendants of all the 
other sons were lost in the flood, there remaining, 
2ven of tJiis lineage, the family of Seth, but one 
thread, and this was NoaJi.; there was, therefore, no 
other genealogy to trace. 

Most people in Christian countries have imbibed 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



23 



the opinion that Adam, Eve, the antedikivians, the 
Jews, the old prophets and patriarchs, were all white 
men, most assuredly; but this is a mistake, as is ev- 
ident from the foregoing, Adam, therefore, in his 
primitive condition, before he had fallen, and covered 
his limbs with clothing, was a glorious personage to 
look upon — being of a bright ruddy red., like an image 
of gigantic size, formed of native copper, instinct 
with life and motion. Thus, when he moved in the 
groves of Paradise, he glowed in the sun's rays like 
some celestial being, gathering from the down bend- 
ing limbs of the trees the ripe but newly created 
fruit. Such was Eve, also, his heaven-made bride, 
though less in stature and more delicately shaped. 
From her head, formed so as no Greek could sculp- 
ture the Parian marble, there fell a silken shower, 
the black and glossy tresses of her hair (like the 
glory of the heads of angels, as written by St. Paul), 
far below her sylph-like waist, enshrouding all her 
person as with a robe, in the gleamy tissues of atten- 
uated jet, while through this, as the winds softly 
whispered and played therewith, was seen the bright 
and fulgent limbs of the first of woman kind. Every 
motion of her agile form showed her to be the imme- 
diate work of God, while the red flush of health, and 
immortal vigor, mantled her bosom and whole per- 
son, like the deep tints of the early sun, flashing 
athwart the disc of a cloud, varying every moment 
as she changed her attitudes, and as the various pas- 
sions of her sinless soul mingled and flowed through 
her being. 

But Adam was of a mightier cast ; all the powers 



24 ORIGIN. CHARACTER, AND 

of his body and mind being more dauntless and 
masculine, decision and force sat enthroned on his 
face, beamed in his eye, and was redolent on every 
limb, well fitted and formed to become the head of 
the newly made world, and the race of gigantic na- 
tions of the antediluvians, whose lives reached for 
many ages — the vast amount of nearly a thousand 
years. Such was the first man and woman of the 
human race, but were somewhat changed by the en- 
trance of sin, which not only affected the hearts and 
natures of Adam and Eve and their race, but tinged 
the beauty of their complexion, changing it from a 
bright tiorid red to the dark hue of common copper, 
and awfully agreed with the still darker passions of 
their fallen souls, who, in this image, brought forth 
their progeny red in complexion, and beclouded iu 
mind. 

Thus God ordained, and this was surely right, 
That the first man should not be black nor white, 
But of a copper hue, a gloomy red, 
Half way between the two, our primal head. 



FORTUNES. OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



25 



SECONDSECTION. 

Origin of the Negro Race — Argument to ascertain this — Causes of 
the great varieties of Human Complexion — Doctrine of Climates, 
and Local Causes to produce such varieties refuted — Impossibility 
of Human Parents producing any other complexion than their 
own without a miracle — Proofs that white, black and red men are 
found in the hottest regions of the globe, and have been thus in 
the same lattitudes for thousands of years — No Negroes on the 
earth till many hundred years after Adam's creation — The precise 
time of their Origin, when and where — No climate forms, or causes 
the origin of human characters — Birth of the first white man, 
when and where — No white man on the earth till many hundred 
years after Adam's creation — Argument to ascertain this — The 
Hebrew Language that of Adam, as well as of Noah and the 
Patriarchs — Meaning of tlieword Ham — Of Japhet and Shem — 
Reasons why God produced men of different constitutions and col- 
ors than had the first man — With many other curious matters. 

Having thus ascertained, as we believe, the color 
of the first human beings, the question naturally 
rises here, how there came into existence other per- 
sons of our race, with different complexions, such 
as a jet black, and the snowy white, vastly varying 
from the original red. 

It has long since been counted the extreme of fol- 
ly to suppose that complexions, so far removed in 
likeness, as are black and white, to have been pro- 
duced by climate, location, manner of living, or any 
such thing, as many have believed. 

This opinion, that of the poAver of mere circum- 
stances to produce the entire characters, both of com- 
2 



26 



ORIGIN. CHARACTER, AND 



flexions and formation of the bodies of the different 
races of men, is now given up as an error by the 
philosophy of the age. This acknowledgment stands 
recorded on the pages of our Encyclopasdias and 
literary works of the time. These declare, after due 
examination and argument^ that the coldest regions 
of the earth have not materially changed the color 
of the skin, formation of the body and limbs, or 
character of the hair of the heads of the different 
races of men. 

Though the African negro man may have dwelt 
ever so many ages in the coldest regions of the earth, 
yet he is a black man still, with his peculiar forma- 
tion of body, and raore peculiar hair, which is gene- 
rally a perfect wool, there has been effected no ma- 
terial change by any such causes. 

The same is equally true, as it relates to the white 
man, who, though dwelling in the lowest latitudes 
of the south, near and on the very equator, for ever 
so many ages, is not changed in shape, the charac- 
ter of the hair of his head, nor inaterially in his 
complexion. The children of white parents, born 
in these burning climes, are the very same as when 
born in cold countries. There is no difference. 

It is true, however, that the skin of such persons, 
when exposed to the air and the rays of the sun, un- 
dergo a change called tanning, but this circumstance 
proves nothing in favor of a radical or material and 
final change from white to black ; because this tan- 
ning is always more or less removed by a change 
from a hot to a colder climate. 

The same fixedness of character attaches to the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 27 



red or copjjer nations over the whole earth, as neither 
frigid, torrid, or temperate chmates have any effect 
on their complexion ; they remain forever the same. 
In the formation of their bodies, the color, length, 
and straightness of the hair of their heads, there is 
no material difference, whatever their modes of liv- 
ing may be, or wherever they may have dwelt. The 
Indians of the cold regions of the north, or of the 
high cold latitudes of the south beyond the equator, 
are as dark and tawny as they are in the temperate 
and hot climates. 

It is the same with the Arabs of the Red Sea, on 
the northern as well as on the southern side, in Af- 
rica. Yes; this complexion, the copper color, the 
original and first hue of the human race, holding a 
grade between black and white, is as strongly fixed 
in the blood of that race as is the black and white 
in the blood of the other two races. 

In proof of this doctrine, the changeless character 
of those three radical and first complexions, irrespec- 
tive o{ all contingencies, we notice that on the eastern 
coast of Africa, in latitude five degrees north, have 
been found jet black, copper colored and white inhab- 
itants. This part of Africa is called the Magadoxa 
kingdom. The whites found in those regions, are 
supposed to be the descendants of the ancient Ro- 
tJians, who once had great possessions in Africa, af- 
ter the fall of Carthage, which took place B. C. about 
140 years. The Greeks, also, from earliest time, 
were settlers more or less in Africa. 

This fact, that of white inhabitants being found 
resident in that negro country, is stated by Joh?i Leo, 



28 ORIGIN; CHARACTER, AND 

who wrote a history of ancient Africa in the Arabic 
language. — Morse Uni. Geo., Vol. ii, pp. 754 and 781. 

Procopius, a Greek historian, of the sixth century, 
1200 years ago, speaks of a race of fair complexion- 
ed people with ruddy countenances and yellow liair, 
who dwelt far within the Lyhian country, which is 
a region of Africa, south and west of ancient Egypt, 
who, it is likely, were of Greek and Roman origin 
also. 

The same people were found by Dr. Thomas 
Shaiv, the antiquary, who wrote in the 17th century, 
and says, that they retained their fair complexions 
and yellow hair, although a lapse of more than a 
thousand years had transpired from the time of Pro- 
copius, and that of Dr. Shaw. The latitude of their 
country is between 10 and 12 degrees south of the 
equator. — A7ner. Etic, Vol. viii, part 2,j). 668. "In 
Abyssinia, which is a region of Africa," says the Uni- 
versal Traveler, page 467, " there are found a popu- 
lation of many tribes of various colors, as black, cop- 
per color, and white, or nearly so." How is this? 
why does not the climate make them all black alike, 
if the black color of the negro is the work of climate 
alone ? But nothing is more false than such an opin- 
ion. 

That time cannot obliterate the distinctive traces 
of national or original character stamped on the first 
races of men, was the opinion of the Rev. Michael 
Russell, LL. D., author of Views of Ancient and 
Modern Egypt, Palestine or the Holy Land. He 
says, in regard to the people of Ethiopia, who are now, 
and have been for more than 2300 years, a mixed 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 29 

people, mixed with the Arabs, a copper colored race, 
and though, by their language, it is impossible to dis 
tinguish one from the other, yet by their physiologi- 
cal qualities in features and /orm, they are easily dis- 
tinguished from the Arab Jjlood, however intimate 
the mixture might be, which 'no length of time can 
obliterate — the negro blood appearing as palpable as 
it does when mixed with the whites. 

This author, everywhere in his work, respecting 
the ancient people of Egypt, and the other countries 
of Africa, carefully distinguishes the negro man, or 
race, from the other dark races and tribes not having 
the woolly head, and the other characteristics of that 
family of man. 

As to the other dark races of the earth, not mixed 
with negro blood, we have but little to do in this 
work ; our whole or chief aim being to illustrate, as 
well as we can, whatsoever properly belongs to the 
origin, character and fortunes of the people Imown as 
the real negro men. 

On this subject, the highly popular lectures on 
physiology, by Professor Lawrence, maintain that 
the longest series of ages are found incapable oi 
changing the negro race from their blackness, what- 
ever the climate may be. — See Lawrence^s Lectures^ 
p. 257, and many other parts of the work. 

This being true, of which we cannot doubt, it is 
shown, and even demonstrated, that at some ancient 
period of time, this color must have had its origin 
without owing it to the influence of climate, and was 
so radically fixed by some competent power, in the 
blood and existence of the parent of the negro race, 



3d 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



that no lapse of ages, climate or other circumstances, 
are found capable of bleaching from the blood and 
skin of the race ; of which power we shall treat in 
due order. 

To prove this doctrine, Professor Lawrence, in the 
above cited work of his, adduces in opposition to 
those who endeavor to maintain the effect of climate 
and circumstances in producing the negro race, in- 
stances where the different complexions of the fam 
ily of man have not been occasioned by such causes, 
All the north of Africa, he says, is occupied by a race 
agreeing nearly in character with the Celts of Eu- 
rope^ who are of the whites, the ancestors of all the 
present nations of that country, as well as of the An- 
glo Americans. In the year 420 of the Christian era, 
there were thousands of the Vandals^ white men of 
the ancient German race, who, after overrunning all 
Italy, went even into Africa under the direction of 
their king, Gonderic, where they conquered and to- 
tally destroyed the aboriginal race, and erected a 
kingdom of their own, which endured nearly 400 
years, being destroyed at last by the Arabs. Of this 
race of white men there still are thousands yet re- 
maining in Africa, as well as of the more ancient 
Greeks and Romans, who, during thousands of years, 
have not become negroes, except by amalgamation. 

He (Lawrence) states also, that the islands of the 
Indian Ocean, as well as those of the Pacific, are peo- 
pled by two distinct races of men. One of these 
races is of a slender construction, the hair curled and 
woolly, the stature short, the disposition barbarous 
and cruel, fleeing with terror from every approach of 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 31 

civilization. The other race is more like the Indians, 
being of a fairer skin, more humane and civilized, as 
well as intellectual. 

The blacks, or woolly heads, says Lawrence, of 
these islands are the real aborigines, while the other 
race is of a later date, from whose presence the more 
ancient negro man retires into the interior and moun- 
tainous districts. It is the same in the island Mada- 
gascar, as there also are found two races. One is of 
an olive complexion with dark, long hair, but the 
other, the true negro, as black as night. 

On the island of Sumatra, which is situated under 
a vertical sun, where no part of the year affords any 
abatement of the heat, except by the winds and rains, 
are found people of quite fair complexions, as well as 
the real negro. In this very island, continues Law- 
rence, the descendants of Europeans, after the lapse 
of ages, are as fair as those born in the country of 
their parents ; but the negroes brought there from 
Guinea, in Africa, continue as deeply black as when 
first carried to the island, as they do everywhere else. 
But on a subject so plain and self-evident, as is the 
fact of the changeless character of the negro complex- 
ion, it would appear almost superfluous to advance 
arguments, or to quote ancient or modern authorities 
in its support, when, at the present time, and every- 
where before our eyes, occular demonstration is af- 
forded, that neither the color nor character of that 
people changes; and from which, we at once infer 
that the origin of this complexion could not havo 
been effected by climate. 

In the appearance of the negro race on the conti- 



32 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

nent of America, has there one lineament of counte- 
nance, or trait of bodily formation, taken place during 
the 350 years or more since the first settlements, 
which promises even an approximation of a final 
change to white? Is the wool of such individuals, 
as have not amalgamated with the whites and Indi- 
ans, a whit less woolly than it was when they were 
first brought to this country ? 

If it were a true doctrine that climate acts with a 
force so powerful on the complexions and formations 
of the human body, as to change the African race to 
whiteness in the northern countries, is it not to be 
dreaded by all, except abolitionists, that the fair skin- 
ned Americans and Europeans (who are now flock- 
ing to Africa, where, no doubt, many of them will 
remain forever) may, in process of time, and the op- 
eration of circumstances, be all changed in their pos- 
terity, to good and substantial black men and women ; 
for if the climate of the north whitens the blacks, 
the climate of the south must blacken the whites : 
surely it is a rule that will work both ways if it 
works at all. But of all this there need be no dread, as 
all former experience contradicts such a catastrophe. 

If^ then, the three standing original, radical, and 
primeval complexions of the human race, red, 
BLACK, and WHITE, were not produced by climate, 
nor other natural circumstances, how, then, were they 
produced ? In relation to the red, we have already 
shown the origin of that color, which was given to 
Adam in his creation ; it remains therefore to be 
shown'how the other two, the white, and especially 
the black, had their beginning. 



FORTUN?:S, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 33 

It was with this question that we set out at the com- 
mencement of this section, which we proceed to an- 
swer as follows : 

God, who made all things, and endowed all ani- 
mated nature with the strange and unexplained pow- 
er of propagation, superintended the formation of 
two of the sons of Noah, in the womb of their mother, 
in an extraordinary and supernatural manner, giving 
to these two children such forms of bodies, constitu- 
tions of natures, and complexions of skin, as suited 
liis will. Those two sons were Japheth and Ham. 
Japheth He caused to be horn white, differing from 
the color of his parents, while He caused Ham to be 
born black, a color still further removed from the red 
hue of his parents than was v/hite, events and pro- 
ducts wholly contrary to nature, in the particular of 
animal generation, as relates to the Juunan race. It 
was, therefore, by the miraculous intervention of tlie 
Divine power that the black and ichite man have 
been produced, equally as much as was the creation 
of the color of tlie first man, the Creator giving him 
a complexion, arbitrarily, that pleased the Divine will. 

This solution of the mystery of the origin of the 
negro's color, we trust, will be acceptable, as there 
appears in the wide field of conjecture and inves- 
tigation, no other paths that lead to light but this. 
The mind, therefore, seems hemmed in, and driven 
to this conclusion by the arm of resistless necessity, 
referring the cause of the negro's color to the arbitra- 
ry will and wisdom of God, rather than to the feebler 
and ineffectual power of contingencies. 

But lest the reader may not be as well satisfied as 



34 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

the writer is, that in the above described manner, the 
negro race had their origin, we shall pass to other 
evidences of the alledged fact. Should we omit to 
do this, we may be accused of relying too securely 
upon what may be termed inferential testimony, as 
set forth on the above pages ; it is our duty, therefore, 
now, to labor in search of direct evidence to the point, 
though, in fact, the former to the writer seems fully 
sufficient. 

It will not be forgotten, that we have said above, 
that Ham, one of the sons of Noah, was born black, 
with all the peculiarities of the true woolly headed 
negro man, by the direction of the Divine power, and 
contrary to the common dictation of nature. Toprove 
this, we sliall commence with an account of a cir- 
cumstance, which, at first sight, may appear of but 
small moment, in relation to the point desired to be 
proved. The circumstance we now allude to, is the 
7ia7ne which was given to the youngest son of Noah, 
the father of the negro race, at his birth, and that 
name was Ham. 

But, says one, how can a name, a mere name, as- 
sist us in this pursuit? We answer, that the word 
Ha?n, in the language of Noah, which was the pure 
and most ancient Hebreiv, signified any thing that 
had become black; it was the word for black, what- 
ever the cause of the color might have been, the 
same as the word black, means black in the English 
tongue. 

The language spoken by Noah, is acknowledged 
on all hands, in all ages, to have been the true Ante- 
diluvian Adamic or Hebrew language. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 35 

But if this is supposed to be unlikely, on account 
of the spreading out of the children of Adam in their 
posterity, over, no doubt, the rrholc earthy before the 
flood, and that from 7i6cessiti/, the language of Adam 
and his immediate house, must have undergone 
changes during so many ages, as was contained in 
1656 years from the creation till the flood ; yet there 
are no doubts to be entertained, that the language 
of Adam v/as continued in the line of Seth, which 
is termed the holy seed, or the life of the Patriarchs 
down to Noah, and from thence to Jacob, the father 
of the Jews, 

Unless this was the fact, it Avere diflicult to ascer- 
tain how the record, or history of the creation, the 
maimers of the antediluvians, the names and the 
ages of the Patriarchs^ in the line of Seth down to 
Noah, with the deeds and acts of many persons who 
lived before the deluge, could have been known to 
Moses, and from him been transmitted to all ages 
and nations since the^rea^ flood. That the accounts 
now alluded to, were not delivered to Moses by di- 
rect inspiration, is shown by there having been a 
knowledge of these things in the family of Noah, and 
of course among the descendants of his house, all 
along from the time of the flood, descending from 
Patriarch to Patriarch, down to Abraham, and from 
thence to Moses ; that writer only embodying anew 
in a book, from older written and traditionary ac- 
counts, a history of facts, brought down from beyond 
the flood by the progeny and lineage of Seth, the 
third son of Adam, written in the Adamic language. 

That information of all tliese things was possessed 



36 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



by Noah, and the succeeding Patriarchs of the Hue 
of SJiem, the eldest son of Noah, is evident from Mo- 
ses's own account, as he everywhere refers to the 
fact of Noah, his children and the Patriarchs, even 
down to Abraham, having a knowledge of the true 
God. It cannot be well overlooked by the careful 
reader, how well Abraham and Melchisedec under- 
stood the will of God, and the history of past ages, 
as referred to by Moses's own account, in his book of 
Genesis, consequently, could not have been just then 
made known to him by the Divine inspiration when 
he wrote that book. 

We hope no one will be offended at this, our opin- 
ion, for the whole book of Genesis is full of refer- 
ences, to the knowledge of the ancients, of the line 
of Seih, Noah, Abraham, Melchisedec, and the other 
Patriarchs before his own time. 

In relation to this opinion, that of Closes having 
derived his. history of the creation, and of the proge- 
ny of /Seth, from written records, we shall have oc- 
casion, in the course of the work, to make still more 
clear as we are able to demonstrate that the fine 
arts, with literature and science, as well as agri- 
culture and mechanism, were cultivated before the 
flood. 

We have said, that the word Ham, in the original 
Hebrew, or Noachian language, was the word for 
that which was black; in proof of this affirmation, 
see Adam Clark's comment on the meaning of the 
word Ham, Gen. x, 1, who there says, that Ham sig- 
nified that which was black. 

In further proof of this position, we adduce the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 37 

fact that the word Ham, in the Coptic language, 
which was spoken by the pure and early, or first 
Egyptians, was the word for black. Now, as Meza- 
rim, or Mezar, one of the sons of Ham, first of all, 
after the flood,, led a colony to the vale of the Nile, 
in Africa, but a little south of Judea, which river 
empties into the Mediterranean, near where the city 
of Alexandria was built by Alexander the Great, It 
is certain, therefore, that the language of this Mezar, 
and his immediate descendants, must have been tlie 
sa7ne, with the language of his father, who was Ham, 
and of his grandfather, Noah, who were the people 
since called the Copts of Egypt. 

That Mezarim, first of all, settled the vale of the 
Nile, is admitted by Greek and Roman, as well as 
by Jew and Egyptian, in every age. The earliest 
Egyptians, says Josephus, were called Mezarites, and 
the country where they dwelt, Mezar, as well as one 
of their _^r5/ cities was called Memj^his — names and 
appellations derived from the name of the first set- 
tler, or head of the family, who led a party, clan, or 
colony, to the slimy flats of the Nile, before any oth- 
er people after the flood. 

Josephus, when speaking of this Mezar im, calls 
him the first king of Memphis, which, as above sup- 
posed, was the first city of ancient Egypt (book viii, 
p. 19), and, therefore, might well be alluded to as the 
first king of the country. 

But how does this fact assist us in finding out the 
meaning of the word Ham, in the Noachian lan- 
guage? It aids us as follows: the first Egyptians 
were called Copts, and have been thus denominated 



38 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

in every age. Now, if this people, who were primi' 
tive in Egypt, and but just from the Ark and the 
tower of Babel, used the word Ha?n, to point out 
that which was black, it proves that the same word 
was made use of, for the sa/ne purpose in the family 
of Noah, among the Chaldeans by Abraham, and of 
necessity was used for the same purpose by Moses, 
when he embodied the ancient history of his ances- 
try, in the book of Genesis, as that work was written 
by him in the Hebrew language. 

To show that the Noachian language, and the lan- 
guage of the first Egyptians, or Copts, was the same 
in the time of Abraham, we have only to call to mind 
that, when the Patriarch went to Egypt out of Ca- 
naan (to which coimtry he had but lately arrived 
from Chaldea), whither he went on accoimt of a great 
famine, there was no difficulty in his oral communi- 
cations with the people of that country. This, there- 
fore, proves that the language of Egypt, in the time 
of Abraham, was still the Hebrew language, and was 
the same which Mezarim, the son of Ham, learned 
of his father and grandfather, Noah. The Egyp- 
tians, therefore, in the use of the word Ham, to de- 
note any thing that was black, acknowledge that their 
great progenitor was called black in the house of his 
own father. 

It is well known that the Hebrew, or Adamic lan- 
guage, gave names to things and existences, in com- 
pliance with the appearajice and iiatiire of things to 
be named, as we have before remarked. It was this 
circumstance, or the dictating power of the Hebrew 
language, which governed, Avhen Adam gave names 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 39 

to all the animals brought before him at the time of 
the creation ; when, as yet, he had heard no sound 
of human voice, except his own, to copy after, yet he 
went on, without embarrassment, naming them ac- 
cording to the sensation produced in his mind when 
he looked at, and had considered the creature to be 
named. Under this very influence, which governed 
in the construction of the Hebrew language, Adam 
gave a name to the first woman, whom he called 
Eve^ because she was to become the mother of all 
living. 

The word Eve, in the Hebrew, signifies Ufe, en- 
livenmg, nourisher of life, producing and preserving 
human life. These qualities and powers of the first 
woman were intuitively and instantly understood 
by Adam, when he had looked upon her, who then 
named her according to her nature, which language, 
like its author, who was God, had infused into it his 
own image, which was truth — accordingly, when 
Adam gave the names of all things, tlie language 
spoke the truth. 

In agreement with this, it is well known that every 
na?ne, of every being, thing, or existence, has its spe- 
cijic meaning in the Hebrew, and, in this respect, it 
is different from all other languages of the globe. 
Let any one reflect a moment on this subject, and 
see if he can find, especially when examining the 
names of me?i in the English, whether they have 
any specific meaning beyond a mere name. 

On this very account, the power of the Hebrew 
language, in dictating the names of things or beings, 
the parents of Ham could not well have named that 



40 



ORGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



child anything else but Harn^ and keep within the 
bounds of the dialect of their language. 

But, in addition to what is already said respecting 
the Hebrew word Ham^ we may remark that it was, 
in some sense, also prophetic of Ham's character and 
fortunes in his own life, and the fortunes of his race, 
as the word not only signified hlack in its literal 
sense, but pointed out the very disposition of his 
mind. The word, doubtless, has more meanings 
than we are now acquainted with — tiDo of which, 
however, beside the first, we find are heat or violence 
of temper, exceedingly prone to acts of ferocity and 
cruelty, involving murder, war, butcheries, and even 
cannibalisfn, including beastly lusts, and lascivious- 
ness in its u-orst feature, going beyond the force of 
these passions, as possessed in common by the other 
races of men. Second, the word signifies deceit, dis- 
honesty, treachery, low-mindedness, and malice. 

What a group of horrors are here, couched in the 
word Ham. all agreeing, in a most surprising man- 
ner, with the color of Ham's skin, as well as with 
his real character as a ma7i, during his own life, as 
well as with that of his race, even now. 

Thus far, we have shown that the very name of 
this youngest son of Noah, is an evidence of no 
small account; that he was born a negro, with all 
the physical, moral, and constitutional traits, which 
mark and distinguish that race of men from the oth- 
er two races. 

The birth of those two sons, Japheth and Ham, 
being thus miraculously produced, there is no doubt 
but that Noah, as a prophet, saw, in the births of 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE, 41 

these children, the hand and design of the Creator. 
He had ah-eady been informed, in some supernatural 
way, and, doubtless, by the appearance or ministra- 
tion of angels, that in about 100 years from the births 
of his three sons, the globe was to be destroyed by 
water, on which account he had already been at 
work twenty years in carrying forward the erection 
of the ark, when Shem, Ham and Japheth were born. 

As a philosopher and a prophet, Noah foresaw, in 
the ruin of the earth by water, that its mild, healthy, 
and pristine climates would undergo a horrid change ; 
and of necessity inhabitants of different characters, 
constitutions and complexions, would be wanted to 
people it ; on which account he bore patiently, for the 
sake of the Divine purposes, the misfortune of the 
strange and monstrous production of his wife, in the 
oirth of Ham, the first negro. For this reason, God 
produced the two new races. 

In reference to the foregoing arguments, which re- 
spect the cause of Ham's name, we notice that after 
the flood, when children were added to his family, 
the same circumstance, their complexion, seems to 
have exerted an influence on their names also. 
CusH was one of the sons of Ham, which word also 
had a reference to that which was black. Cush, 
Cushan, Cifshi, and Chii-iSha7i-Ris/i-A-Thah7i, are 
all of the same or relative import, and especially the 
word Cushanrishathaim, signifies Ethiopian black- 
ness, as well as the blackness of iniquity. 

On this very account, the ancient country of Ethi- 
opia, situated in Africa, in the region of the head 
waters of the Nile, which was settled first of all by 
2* 



42 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

the family of Ciish^ was called Cushaii, as well as 
Ethiopia, or the country of the blacks. 

The meaning of the word Ethiope. which is also 
a Hebrew word, signifies blackness, a name given to 
the country, on account of the color of its first in- 
habitants. 

Even the word negro, is derived from the Hebrew 
word Niger, and signifies black. Niger, is a great 
river of Africa, and was thus originally named, on 
account of black men having first settled the coun- 
tries of that river ; and hence arose from earliest time 
the word negro, and applied to the race of Ham, and 
no other people. 

Canaan was the name of another of the sons of 
Ham. But this word signified a trader or merchant, 
and seems to have pointed out the pursuits of his 
progeny, rather than their color. It was from this 
son that the Phoenicians, Tyrians and Zidonians, 
with all the tribes of the land of Canaan which was 
PliGEnicia itself, proceeded, who were a trading sea- 
faring and mercantile race. 

There was, however, a place in this country of Ca- 
naan, or Palestine, a district that was called Chusi, 
inhabited no doubt by a colony or family of the race 
of Cush. 

The word Canaan, therefore, appears to have been 
prophetically given, to that son of Ham, pointing to 
the pursuits, rather than any other peculiarity of that 
branch of Ham's race. 

The word Japhelh, is a Hebrew word, and was giv- 
en as a name to one of the sons of Noah, which also 
had its prophetic meaning, and pointed out the for- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



43 



tunes of Japheth's race, which was to consist of great 
enterprise, enlargment and renown in the world ; one 
who was to excel, and even to rule over the races of 
his two brothers; which as we shall show in due or- 
der, has been wonderfully fulfilled. But there is an- 
other meaning in the word Japheth^ which is of im- 
mense importance to the doctrine set forth in this 
work, viz., that Japheth was born a white man, as well 
as Ham with a contrary hue, proving to a demonstra- 
tion, if we may be allowed to use so strong a term, 
that in the family of Noah the two complexions had 
their real origin. 

This peculiar meaning is found in the translation 
of the word Japheth, by the Rev. Ja?7ies Ci'eighton, 
A. B., a most accomplished Hebraist, in his Dictionary 
of the Scripture, proper names, p. 162. This great 
linguist states that 07ie of the meanings of the word 
Japheth is fair, or white, which cannot be said of 
black, as black is not fair. From this translation we 
learn that Japheth was a fair white man, on whose 
face and form there was stamped in the eye of his 
father, the sure sign of great intellectual endowments 
betokening renown, enlargement and rule among 
men, wherefore, he could give him no other name, 
than the important word Japheth, or xSxQfair and rud- 
dy white son, his fortunes remaining to be fulfilled 
in the course of time, while his father, acted upon 
by the great beauty of this child, gave him his name 
and blessed him, as the progenitor of a race who 
were to fill the world with their glory and their 
numbers, as is now the fact, before the eyes of 
all meU; for the white man, and the white woman, 



44 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

are paramount in all the improvementa of the 
earth. 

Shem, was the name of another of the sons of No- 
ah ; which word also had its meaning, and was re- 
nown, praise or greatness, prophetically pointing out 
the character of his race, but doubtless 'inore partic- 
ularly, the renown of the genealogy of the holy seed, 
or line of the Patriarchs, Prophets, the Jews, and of 
Jesus Christ, who came of the line of Shem. On 
these accounts, the renown of the house of Shem, 
has been great in all the earth. 

The Jews have, in every age, been a wonderful 
people, who were produced by miracle as in the birth 
of Isaac, when his parents were too old to have chil- 
dren, and have been preserved by power, equally 
miraculous, carrying out and maintaining the signi- 
fications of the word Shem, which was the name of 
their great progenitor. 

In the opinion, that there was, someivhere, in an- 
cient ages, three distinct colors of the human family, 
we are by no means alone or singular. This was 
the opinion of the very celebrated philosopher. Dr. 
Mitchell, late of New- York, which opinion he publish- 
ed, with many curious matters to the world. 

But Dr. Mitchell has not told us at what periot/ of 
time, these complexions had their commencement, 
whether in the family of the first man, or at some 
other period — or whether there was created three dis- 
tinct fathers to the human race, as many men do now 
believe, and probably was the opinion of Mitchell. 

Professor Lawrence, whose volume of Lectures 
on Physiology we have already quoted, is of this 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 45 

opinion, see p. 257, who wholly disallows the power 
of climates to cause the color of the aboriginal ne- 
gro; but, like Dr. Mitchell, fails to inform us how that, 
or the other complexions, had their beginning. He 
seems, however, to have felt that as he was giving an 
opinion on the subject of human complexions, and 
that if climates could not have been the cause, he 
was, therefore, in reason, bound to say something re- 
specting the origin of the negro's black skin. The 
cause of this he rather thinks, was some ancient dis- 
ease of the surface of the bodies of a tribe of people, 
which, by long continuance, became so fixed in their 
nature, that it formed a permanent and national char- 
acter, as now seen in all the world, of the negro race. 

But from this opinion we dissent, as diseases do 
not work their own cure, and still retain the very ev- 
idence of that disease, which is the black of the negro's 
skin. It is allowed that the negro tribes, of all men, 
are the most healthy, their limbs strong and agile, their 
skins smooth, soft and silky — long lived and free 
from diseases ; which facts but poorly accord with 
the idea of a diseased skin and, of necessity, diseas- 
ed blood. 

But we are fully satisfied, that the two complexions, 
black and white, as they appertain to the human 
race, had their origin in the family of Noah, as we 
have contended on the foregoing pages. Such a 
cause is, to the writer's understanding, far more rea- 
sonable than any other problem, that as yet has been 
imagined; such as the climates, a diseased state of 
the skin, or a father distinct from the father of the 
other races, as many have believed. 



46 ORIGIN. CHARACTER, AND 

But as we have much lo say in the following sec- 
tion, relative to the same subject, though traversed 
in the light of other evidence, we shall here close 
the present chapter. 

Thus now from Adam's blood, in Heaven's sight, 
Two other bloods were made, as black and white. 
From whom, as from two springs, two torrents roll 
Of tribes and nations, to the final goal. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



THIRD SECTION. 

Adaptation of men and animals, to the countries and circumstances 
of their being — Early settlements of the first nations after the 
Flood — Three races of men, black, red and white, in the family of 
Noah — Great difference between the formations of the bodies of 
white men and negroes — Reasons why the skulls of black men are 
thicker than those of the whites — These differences noticed by an- 
cient Historians — Negroes not as liable to infectious diseases as 
white men — Interesting notice by Herodotus, respecting the heads 
of Negro men — Curious formation of their feel — Reasons why — 
Extraordinary fact respecting the Negro's skin being filled with 
myriads of little cups of water — The reasons why — With many 
other curious matters. 

Adaptation of men or animals as to their loca- 
tion, regarding their physical powers, propensities 
and appetites, favoring their comforts and well being, 
is a grand law of God in nature. The polar bear has 
his dwelling amid mountains of snow and ice, the 
elephant on the burning plains of the equator, the 
eagle in the heaven above, and the fishes in the depths 
of the ocean and other waters of the globe, where 
each creature, though occupying conditions and lo- 
cations diametrically opposed in nature, rest and re- 
joice in their places. 

Among men reckoned in classes, as belonging to 
distinct families or nations, the earth has also been 
divided by the operation of the Divine hand, and 
suited to their several natures. To the white race, 
the descendants of Japhet, the northern regions of 



48 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

the earth were given. To Shem and his descendants, 
the red or copper colored race, the middle regions or 
temperate cKme, north of the equator, was allotted. 
But to Ham and his race was given the burning south. 

The red race, we perceive, like their complexion, 
occupied a middle region between the two, the blacks 
and the whites. 

This providence was in exact conformity with 
their several physical characters and constitutions, 
as well as a remarkable adaptation to their respective 
complexions, the blacks in the south, the red men in 
the middle, and the whites in the stormy regions of 
the cold and snowy north. 

If there was not a Divine hand in all this, why 
did it not happen that the white race should go south, 
and the blacks to the north ? or why did not the 
three races, red, white and black, mingle irrespective- 
ly at first in the various climes, which most assured- 
ly was not the case, each division of the three sources 
of mankind studiously keeping themselves apart 
en a great measure, and, doubtless, far more so in the 
first ages? 

But how is it shown that the hot countries of the 
earth are adapted to the comforts of the negro race 
more than to the whites, or rather that the negro race 
was formed suitable to the countries they were to 
people? It is shown from their formation. The 
bones of the negro's head are vastly different from 
those of the white man's, consisting in the difference 
there is in their respective thickness ; the former be- 
hig made far stronger, thicker, harder and more com- 
pact in relation to the sutures, or scams of the skull 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 49 

In the white man's head, tlie sutures are more 
loosely united than the negro's, which is nearly as 
firmly knit together as if there were no sutures at 
all, or as if the head was but one continued bone. 

This being allowed, it yet remains, says one, to 
show the advantage of a thick skull in a hot coun- 
try over a thin one. This, as we apprehend, is eas- 
ily done, as the great thickness of the skull bone is 
an admirable defense of the brain against the 5?y;i- 
stroke. Were it not for this, that portion of the ne- 
gro population, who live almost continually in the 
open air beneath the fervor of a tropical sun, would 
soon be totally cut off, as it is well known that the 
whites cannot endure this kind of exposure without 
great danger, as many lose their lives this way, al- 
though their heads are covered with a hat, a turban, 
or some such defense. But the negro is «et»er affect- 
ed in this way by the sun ; no, not even their chil- 
dren, though they are continually wandering on the 
wilds and in the deserts, bare-headed and naked. 

But, says the querest, do not the skull bones of the 
whites increase in thickness in hot countries, thereby 
showing that it is the climate which does this, and 
that originally, the heads of all men were alike ; and 
thus proving that the climates give complexions, as 
well as formations, to all the human family? Our 
answer is, that no such phenomenon as the thicken- 
ing of the heads of white men, who have lived thou- 
sands of years in their posterities, in Africa, has ever 
been known to happen. 

Man is a distinct creature from animals, or dumb 
beasts, and is not affected, as they are, by circumstances 
3 



50 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

and climates ; God has not produced his image, 
or likeness, after so mutable a fashion, as that the cl- 
ements should have power to change it. But, says 
one, is it the body, then, which was made in the like- 
ness of God 1 Oh no, it was the mind ; but as the 
form of the head, no doubt, gives form to the mind, 
or, in other words, controls its powers by contraction 
or expansion, it would follow, that if climate can 
change man's shape and color as it does dumb ani- 
mans, then, also, it can change the powers of the hu- 
man 77iind from its original stamp ; and thus the true 
image of God in man, as given to Adam and his 
blood, would become another creature, and some other 
likeness, which idea is abhorrent to the relation which 
exists between the Creator and his own image, in 
man. 

Can any thing, therefore, be more evident, than that 
God has given the negro his thick skull for this par- 
ticular reason ? 

This curious difference between the heads of the 
two races, was, even in ancient times, a matter of 
wonder; for Herodotus, who lived 450 years B. C, 
and traveled much in the different countries of Asia 
and Africa, has mentioned it in book 3cl, of his travels, 
p. 12, and says, that when in Egypt, the people show- 
ed him a place where a great battle was once fought 
between the Egyptians and the Persians, and the 
bones of the slain, on both sides. The following are 
his words : " By the people inliabiting the place where 
this battle was fought, a very surprising thing was 
pointed out to my attention. The bones of those who 
fell in the engagement, were soon afterward collected 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 51 

and separated into heaps. It was observed of the 
Persians, that their heads were so extremely soft, as 
to yield to the slightest impression, even of a pebble ; 
those of the Egyptians, on the contrary, were so firm, 
that the blow of a large stone could hardly break 
them." 

Thus we see, that the same circumstance — that of 
the great thickness of the negro's head — was always, 
as it is now, a formation suited to their condition. 

The peculiar form of the negro's /oo/ goes, also, to 
establish the doctrine of adaptation. This peculi- 
arity consists in the great length and width of that 
limb, the extraordinary protrusion of the heel back- 
ward, placing the leg nearly in the middle of the foot 
in many instances. This circumstance is also favor- 
able to them in passing over deep miry and sandy 
places, morasses and swampy grounds, which trait, 
it is said, characterizes much of the wilds of Africa. 

This circumstance — the grent size of the negro's 
foot, is noticed by Pliny^ a Roman Historian. 

In the production of the negro's skin, there is a 
circumstance no less curious and admirable than are 
the other two peculiarities; and this is the placing, 
by the Divine hand, in the cutaneous covering of 
their bodies, myriads of little cups of pellucid water 
mingled with the capillary vessels. By this means, 
the sun's rays are thrown off, as they are from the 
face of the waters of lakes, seas and rivers, or the 
dew drops of the ground, by which that cool and 
moist condition of the surface of the negro's body is 
produced — but this is not so with the white man. 

On this account, the prevalence of these water cells, 



52 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

or particles, in the skin of the African, they are less 
capable of enduring the cold than a white man, whose 
skin is not thus formed. In cold countries, the ne- 
gro trembles and withers in the blast, while the white 
man rejoices in the tempest and the snow ; but in the 
hot regions, the former stretches forth his limbs, his 
eyes sparkle, and his whole person becomes alive with 
activity and force, while the latter is enfeebled, flies 
to some shade, and faints from the effect of the heat. 

The great thickness of the skull of the African 
seems to be a matter of exultation to the race, as in 
this way they are furnished with a powerful weapon, 
both of attack and defense, as one blow of this dread 
ful bone against the head or body of a white man, or 
of themselves, is found to be decisive, and sometimes 
even fatal. Instances are known among this people 
who, to show their power in this way, have actually 
driven their heads through a common board fence, 
when the splinters, closing round the neck, held them 
fast, where they must have died, had they not been 
cut out by some friendly hand. 

The great thickness and hardness of the heads of 
this people — the African race — is, in another respect, 
a singular providence in their fovor, as a defense 
against the blows of angry masters, in a state of ser- 
vitude — it being almost impossible tobreak their skulls 
even with a club. 

There is still another particular in which they are 
favored by the Divine goodness, and this is, not be- 
mg as subject to some diseases — such as the yellow 
fever, fever and ague, and bilious complaints — as are 
white men, and in also being generally longer lived. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 53 

From the foregoing, and from the fact that the ne- 
gro race have, in all ages, flourished most in the hot 
countries of the earth, as in Africa, and the tropical 
islands, it is evident, therefore, that they were formed 
and fitted for their place and condition on the globe. 
If this be true, then we have made out our position, 
which is, that God formed and adapted every creature 
to the country and elements suited to their natures, 
so as to compete with difficulties, and to enjoy their 
being ; wherefore, from the facts of the case agreeing 
with this opinion, the negro was created as he is, and 
has not been produced and modeled by circumstances 
and accidents. 

The earth was made, and hung amid the air, 
A fabric great and huge, yet wondrous fair, 
On which was placed all things, that walk or flj', 
And each adapted to its destiny. 



64 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



FOURTH SECTION. 



Proof of the existence of the Negro race too near the time of Noah, 
and in liis neighborhood, to allow of the doctrine of climate 
to have been the cause of this — Remarks of David in the Book of 
Psalms, on this subject — In the Book of Chronicles on this sirb- 
ject — In the Book of Genesis on tliis subject — Names of all the 
sons of Ham, the first Negro — The countries they settled, after the 
ruin of the Tower of Ninirod — Respecting the color of the Egyp- 
tians; Herodotus's account of this matter, as well as of the color of 
all Africans in his age — Proofs that they were always black, from 
the very beginning of their existence — Curious account of the 
wife of Moses — Proofs of her being a Negress, and of the race 
• of Ham— Statement of the prophet Jeremiah, that Ethiopians 
were black — If the three sons of Noah were all of the same com- 
plexion, then follow certain results, fatal to the veracity of the 
Scriptures — Hercules — Was Nimrod the grandson of Noah, and 
the origin of all the fabled Herculeses of all the early nations — 
Some curious traditions of African authority, respecting their own 
origin — With many other curious matters. 

In the labor of this section of the work, we shall 
endeavor to show that the negro race was known as 
such from the remotest ages, and very near to the 
time of Noah. If we make this out, it will operate 
against the opinion which many entertain, namely, 
that climate has produced the black man. Although 
we have shown in the argument of the second sec- 
tion of these pages, from the force of the Hebrew 
language, in giving the names of Noah's sons, espe- 
cially Japlieth and Ham, and thus made out the ex- 
istence of the first black man, yet there may be many 



FORTUNES. OF THE NEGRO RACE. 55 

who will not be satisfied with this mode of investi- 
gation. On this account, we deem it necessary to 
examine the matter in another hght, which is to 
show that there was such a race, and such a people, 
as negroes, actually known as such too near the time 
of Noah to admit of the operation of climate to that 
effect. But if we allow that tlie climate did actual- 
ly so operate upon the primitive people, it will amount 
to a great wonder why it did not operate on all alike 
in the same place and country; and thus there would 
have been in the world, during the age nearest to 
Noah, and in his own time about the ark, nothing 
but a negro population, himself, his wife, Japheth 
and his son's wives, among the number. King Da- 
vid, in the 105th Psalm, says that Egypt was the 
land of Ham. This was said more than 1000 years 
B. C. David was not ignorant that Mezarim, the 
son of Ham, settled Egypt, nor was he ignorant of 
their color or character, as he knew that Ham was 
called Ham because he was black, the Hebrew being 
Ills vernacular tongue. 

In 1st Chron. iv, 40, there is an account of a peo- 
ple, called the people of Ham, who were then living 
in Canaan, at a place called Gedur. To this place 
a warlike company of one of the tribes of the Jews 
went and cut the people off, because, as the text 
reads, they found in that place "fat pasture and good, 
and the land was wide and quiet and peaceable, for 
they of Hai7i had dwelt there of old." From this 
'peculiar phraseology, /or ihei/ of Ham having dwelt 
tlwrc of old,\YQ see at once that the meaning is, they 
had dwelt there from the beginning, or that they 



56 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

were the primitive inhabitants, as indeed was the 
fact — Canaan, their father, having first of all, after 
the flood, settled Canaan. 

As far back in time as the Patriarch Abraham, we 
are able to show that the Hamites dwelt in Canaan. 
See 23d chap, of Gen., where there is a circumstan- 
tial account of Abraham buying a burying place, on 
tlie occasion of the death of Sarah, his wife, from 
the children of Heth. But who were the children of 
Heth? V/e answer, they were the descendants of 
Canaan, one of the sons of Ham. To prove this, see 
1 Chron. i, 13, where it is said that Canaan begat 
Zidon his first born, and Heik. It was of this man's 
children that Abraham bought the burying place. 

This was 1872 years B. C, and but four hundred 
and seventy-six years after the flood. Heth, there- 
fore, was the great grandson of Noah, being the son 
of Canaan, who was the son of Ham, and Ham was 
the son of Noah, making this Het/i Noah's great 
grandson. 

But there were other tribes and families, the off- 
spring of Canaan, who dwelt in that country in the 
time of Abraham, as the Jebusite, Amorite, Girgahite, 
Hivite, the Arkite, and the Levite, as the Zidonians, 
Tyrians, and many others of the race of Ham. This 
is the reason why it is said, as we have quoted above, 
from 1 Chron. iv, 40, that they of Ham dwelt in that 
country of old, that is, in the days or time of Abra- 
ham, and, of necessity, from a more ancient date, as 
Abraham found this people inhabiting the country at 
the time he came there first of all from Ur, of Chal- 
dea, beyond the river Euphrates in the east, which, 



FORTUNES, OF THE NECillO RACE. 57 

of necessity, makes them, after the flood, the first or 
the primitive race of Canaan. But if the people of 
that age, so near the time of the flood, were all of 
the same complexion, as abolitionists suppose, the 
climate not yet having had time to make the great 
changes since made, how was it, or by what means 
did they know in those ages, that they of Ham had 
dwelt there of old'} Surely this would have been im- 
possible, unless they were in some way strongly 
marked and distinguished from the other two races 
of Noah, so that they were readily known wherever 
they were seen, and that distinction must have been 
their black complexion, as we are not authorized to 
suppose any other, nor this either. 

The names of the four sons of Ham^ according to 
the first book of Chron.. chap, i, and the Jewish An- 
tiquities by Josephus, chap, vi, p. 21, were Phut, 
Mezarim, CusH, and Canaan, four in number. 
Canaan, it appears from these authorities, settled in 
the southern parts of Asia, along the Persian gulf, 
and the eastern parts of the northern side of the Med- 
iterranean, as well as all the back coimtry, or moun- 
tainous regions of old Phoenicia, afterward called 
Palestine, comprehending the country of Jerusalem, 
and quite down to the isthmus of Suez, a strip of 
country situate between the ends of the Red Sea 
and the Mediterranean, which divides Asia Minor 
from Africa. This was a mighty region of country, 
over which the descendants of Canaan spread them- 
selves, more or less, immediately after the dispersion 
from the great tower. 

There can be no doubt, however, but there may 



55 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

have been among them many individuals of the oth- 
er houses of the Hamethian race, as there was no 
great reason why there might not have been such in- 
stances, seeing they were all one people ; but yet the 
bulk of the first settlers of those regions, were of the 
family of Canaan. 

CusH and his father. Ham, with the mighty Nlm~ 
rod, after the confusion of their language, at the tow- 
er of Babel, traveled, doubtless by water, down the 
Euphrates to the Persian Gulf, as it is now called, 
the first name being unknown ; and from thence by 
V\^ater coasted along the Arabian sea, which is a 
branch or bay of the Indian ocean, and onward till 
(hey came to the strait of Bahelmandel, a narrow 
place of water where the Red Sea unites with the 
ocean, the southern side of which strait is Africa, and 
is near the region of the head of the Nile, where 
C^isli and his fellows settled and laid the foundation 
of the Ethiopian empire, which continued in some 
sense to be known on the page of histor}^, even to 
the time of Christ, when all traces of them, as a 
people, in the form of a kingdom or government, was 
lost. 

Phut, or Put, as it is spelled in the Scriptures, 
went also to Africa. But as his region of coloniza- 
tion was even west of Egypt, in the interior of Afri- 
ca, they must have gone the whole distance by land, 
across the isthmus of Suez, and laid the foundation 
of the Lybian empire. 

Mezarim, it seems, took the same course with his 
clan or family, passing over the isthmus, and settled 
on the slimy flats of the Nile, where that river unites 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



69 



with the Mediterranean, following up the river on 
both sides, filhng, in the process of a few years, the 
vast vale of that mighty river, for hundreds of miles, 
with their multitudes, commencing in this way the 
famous Egyptian empire. 

Thus the sons of Ham settled themselves, after 
their famous attempt to build the tow^r, which they 
intended, under the administration of the ferocious 
Nimrod, as the nucleus of a kingdom of idolatry, 
and for another purpose, of which we shall speak in 
the proper place. But how long it was before these 
brothers, with their respective tribes, clans, or houses, 
found the countries we have spoken of, and settled 
there, and how much they suffered from fatigue, hun- 
ger, wild beasts, and the various incidents of such 
an enterprise and journeyings, through untrodden 
wilds, and unnavigated waters, after they left the 
plains of the Euphrates and the tower, who can tell ? 
But that they did settle these countries, and were the 
first of mankind to do so, after the flood, is true and 
authentic. 

Next, and in order to ascertain whether these peo- 
ple were hlacJx-, we shall follow Mezarim, who settled 
Egypt along the Nile, and Canaan, who settled old 
Phoenicia, or the Holy Land, since so called. Should 
we be successful in establishing the fact, from cir- 
cumstances in history, and the Holy Scriptures, that 
they were negroes or black men, then we shall car 
tainly make good our first position, namely, that 
Ham was created a negro man, and that all his pos- 
terity are, and have been, from necessity, of the same 
character, as we have heard of no miracle, which 



60 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, ANU 



has rescued them from that complexion, though it 
was a miracle which made them so at first. 

Herodotus was a famous Grecian historian, who 
by the learned is denominated Xh.e father of history. 
This celebrated author was born nearly 500 years 
B. C, and traveled much in Africa, for the purpose 
of obtaining a knowledge of the nations, manners 
and customs of that part of the world. This man 
says expressly, that the Egyptians, with several na- 
tions contiguous in the interior of Africa, were black, 
having curled or woolly hair. See his works, chap. 
Ivii, p. 88. 

On the authority of this statement of Herodotus, 
Volney, a celebrated French writer, remarks that the 
people of those countries, Egypt, Lybia, and Ethio- 
pia, were real negroes of the same species, with all 
the nations of Africa. Is not this statement of the 
Grecian traveler to the point, proving that the people 
of Egypt and Africa, nearly 500 years B. C, were 
negroes with black skins, and woolly heads ; and if 
thus, at that period, how is it to be shown that they 
were not always so ? 

This statement of Herodotus, which respects the 
people, or descendants of Ham, is corroborated by a 
narrative, recorded in Josephus's Antiquities of the 
Jews, chap, xi, p. 68, which relates to the descend- 
ants of Canaan, who were dwelling in that country 
in the time of Moses. This account of Josephus, 
goes to establish the same point, namely, that the 
race of Ham was always black. When Moses, says 
Josephus, fled from Egypt, on account of his having, 
in defense of a Hebrew, one of his own nation; killed 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 61 

an Egyptian, and had come into the country of 
Midian, having fled across the isthmus of Suez, and 
a part of the desert of Arabia, in order to avoid the 
Highways, for fear of the pursuers sent out after him 
by the orders of Pharaoh, found a well of water, and 
having drank of the same, retired a httle way from 
it, and sat down beneath a shade to rest. Now while 
resting, there came in sight a company of young wo- 
men, seven in number, all the daughters of one man, 
Jethro or Reiiel by name. These young women were 
shepherdesses, and had the care of their father's 
herds, who was a great man, even a priest of the 
neighborhood where he lived. Now when the girls 
had come from the way of the wilderness, near the 
foot of Mount Horeb, and had arrived at the well, 
drawn the water, and were about to refresh their 
flocks, there came also, from another direction, a num- 
ber of men called Troglodytes, who also had the care 
of flocks. These men, it appears, were so barbarous 
and unfeeling as to take away by force the water 
which the young women had drawn, compelling 
them to labor in vain. 

But Moses, from his resting place, had seen the be- 
havior of these men, and heard the outcry of the girls, 
hastened to the spot ; and being a man of great mus- 
cular power and majesty of countenance, rebuked the 
savages and drove them away, as they were over- 
awed and frightened, when the young women ad- 
vanced and watered their charge. 

Now the daughters of Jethro were so delighted 
with the beauty and gallant bearing of the stranger, 
that when they had taken their flocks to the fold 



62 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

they related to their father the whole affair, in such 
terms of rapture, that induced the kind hearted priest 
immediately to send out runners in the direction of 
the well, although it was then verging toward the 
twilight of the evening, in search of the man. In 
this hospitable undertaking they soon succeeded, 
bringing in Moses to the tents of Jethro, the shepherd 
priest. 

Here the young women renewed their admiration 
of their hero, while their kind father made him wel- 
come to his dwelling for the night. But such were 
the elegance and manners of Moses, and his wisdom 
of conversation, that the good hearted host soon in- 
vited the stranger to make his house his home as 
Jong as it might please him. j 

Moses, finding the place afforded him all the secu- 
rity he desired to screen him from the pursuit of his 
enemies, entered into a contract with this priest of 
Midian, and became a shepherd, instead of the heir 
apparent to the throne of Egypt, by virtue of being 
patronized by the daughter of Pharaoh from his 
birth. 

It does not appear that Jethro had any sons, all his 
children being daughters, from among whom Moses, 
in a short time, took a wife, dwelling there with his 
father-in-law many years. 

Concerning this Jethro or Beuel, as Josephus calls 
him, the Midianite, to whose family Moses became 
allied in marriage, Abid Fara-jus, an Arabian writer, 
quoted by Adam Clark, in his commentary on the 
character of this very man, in the book of Exodus, 
says that the girl Saphury, or as it is written in the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 63 

Scripture, 2^ipporah, was the black daughter of Reiiel^ 
or Jethro, which is all one, as he had several names. 
If she was a Mack woman, then were her sisters also 
black, as well as her father and mother, who were 
real negroes, the descendants of Ham, or Abul Fara- 
jus would not have said that she was a black woman. 
But if this is not satisfactory, we are able to prove 
she was a black person by a higher authority, and 
will, if we do so, powerfully corroborate the state- 
ment and veracity of Fara-jus, the Arabian historian, 
whom Clark has honored by a reference to his work. 
On this subject, see the book of Numbers, chapter 
xii, 1, where the circumstance of Moses having mar- 
ried the daughther of Jethro is spoken of as follows : 
"tIwc? Miriam ayid Aaron spoke agoAnst Moses he- 
cause of the Ethiopian woman^ whom he had mar- 
ried ; for he had tnarried an Ethiopian woman.^^ 

Now, as the word Ethiopia?!, or Ethioj), is a He- 
brew word, signifying that which is black, as well as 
the word Ham, we learn at once that Miriam and 
Aaron, the brother and sister of Moses, found fault 
with him for marrying a black woman, one of the 
cursed race ; or, as Dr. Clark has written it, on this 
very subject, in the Hebrew, " ha isha ha cii'shith" 
or that woman, the Cushite, who, it appears, was 
recognized by Aaron and Miriam as a descendant of 
the family of Cush, one of the sons of Hat?i, the first 
negro of the human race. 

Moses was well acquainted with the country to 
which the family of Cush removed after the confu- 
sion of the tower, and speaks of it in Gen. ii, 13 : 
" And the name of the third river is Gihon. the same 



64 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

is it that encompasseth the whole land of Ethiopia?^ 
Now, why did Moses call that country Ethiopia, 
through which the river Gihon flowed ? It was be- 
cause a black race of inhabitants first of all peopled it ; 
for the word Ethiopia, in the Hebrew of Moses, as 
well as the words Ha?7i, Cash, &c., signified black, 
the country having no name prior to its settlement by 
the family of Cush, the son of Ham, and, of conse- 
quence, the name which distinguished the first set- 
tlers would become the name of their country. 

But notwithstanding Moses has called the country 
Ethiopia, yet it was also called in the earliest times 
Cusha?},, and the people Chuseans, after Cush, its first 
king and settler, both of which words signify that which 
is black. Ethiopia, as a country, is a world of green 
foliage and flowers, furnishing no grounds for the 
word Ethiopia to become its name, on which account 
it remains that its first inhabitants must have occa- 
sioned its name by their own peculiar nationality of 
color. 

That an Ethiopian was black, is stated by Jere- 
miali xiii, 23, as follows : " Can the Ethiopian change 
his skin, or the leopard his spots ?" which was the 
same as if he had said, can a Mack man change his 
skin, or a leopard his spots ? as the word Ethiopian 
was one of the words in the Hebrew for that which 
was black. From this statement of Jeremiah, as well 
as from all the other evidences, we learn that the 
whole race of Ham, the Egyptians, the Lybians, the 
Ethiopians and the Canaanites, were all so many 
black nations. The prophet even makes use of this 
fact, the blackness of the Ethiopian's skin, as an em- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



65 



blem of the depravity and wickedness of the Jews, 
which, he insinuates, they could not change, because 
they had become so accustomed to do evil, any more 
than the Ethiopian could change the blackness of his 
person. 

Thus we have, as we believe, made out that there 
was in the very outset of time, after the flood, a race 
of black people, who were made thus, not by climate 
or any other accident or contingency, but by the ar- 
bitrary power of God, to suit his own pleasure in car- 
rying out his designs respecting the people of the 
globe. The genuine Cushite, says Richard Watson, 
was woolly headed. — Historical Dictionary, p. 282. 
This being a fact, proves the races of the other negro 
brothers to have been of the same character as a peo- 
ple, and yet for a certain reason, of which we shall 
speak hereafter, from the same people straight-haired 
black men were produced. 

Possibly, by this time, it may be imagined that so 
much labor, bestowed to prove that an Ethiopian is 
black, is not called for, as all men know they are. 

To this we reply, that the question is not whether 
an Ethiopian is black at the present time, but whether 
they were anciently so — as there are many Avho be- 
heve that the black nations of the earth have become 
thus by the force of circumstances, such as climato, 
food, manner of living, &c. Such persons hold that 
the people now called Africans were anciently the 
same as the people of ^Shem and Japheth, whatever 
their complexions were ; but we think we have 
abundantly shown the entire contrary. 

If this were not true, it would be impossible to un« 
3* 



66 



ORIGIN, CHARACTEU, AND 



derstand a very remarkable prophesy of Noah, and 
equally impossible to learn where to apply that pro- 
phesy, and whether it has been, or is yet to be, ful- 
filled, which relates to the descendants of Ha7?i, of 
which, in its place, we shall give all due attention. 

If the three sons of Noah were all of one complex- 
ion, and their posterities the same for many ages, or 
till the climates had time to make some ivhile, some 
7-6(7, and some black, it would be impossible to know 
the races apart ; as some of the descendants of Shem 
may have been changed into negroes, and some of 
the race of Ham may have been made into white or 
red men, and thus, by the operation of the climates, a 
state of irretrievable confusion been produced, as to 
the identities of the respective races. From this view, 
it is not difficult to see that the extraordinary prophe- 
sies of Noah, respecting the races of his three sons, is 
of necessity defeated, and rendered impossible to be 
traced, or investigated in relation to their being ful- 
filled, and thus the veracity of God thrown back into 
the mysteries of his acts, which have never been re- 
vealed: such is one of the horrible results of the clim- 
ate argument, in relation to the complexions of the 
human race. 

It is, therefore, highly important to find out ivho 
the race and descendants of Ham are, so as to know 
whe7-e to apply the foreknowledge of God, as express- 
ed by Noah, Genesis ix, 25 — 27, in relation to that 
race, as well as to the others. On this account, we 
shall pursue the subject a little further, and but a 
little, lest we may weary the reader with too much 
of one thin^. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE 



67 



That the Egyptians were the aboriginal people of 
Egypt, is maintained with considerable labor by i/e- 
rodotus, as well as JoscpJms, who say that Menes 
was their j^rs^ khig, and the man who built Memphis, 
the first and eldest city of Egypt. 

He says that when this Menes, with his company, 
came to the vale of the Nile, in Africa, that the whole 
country was one entire hog, except a place where 
Thebes was afterward built, which was higher 
ground. Of this there can be no doubt, when it is 
remembered, that every year the Nile overflowed the 
whole vale of Egypt, which extended in length some 
hundreds of miles, and was on an average about fifty 
miles wide. Now, as this immense alluvial was 
thickly overgrown with trees, grass and herbage, 
which had been accumulating from the subsiding 
of the flood, unchecked or removed, there is no reason 
why it should not have been, as Herodotus says it 
was, a continued bog, the waters of which had never 
been drained off" by ditches and canals, as it after- 
ward was by the first settlers and their posterity. 

Herodotus also says, ihat the Egyptians maintained 
that they themselves were the most ancient people 
of the human race, and that from them even the 
Greeks borrowed their knowledge of the gods. — See 
that author^s work, vol. i, book 2, p. 173, 175, 184 

Who was Menes^ their first king, but Mezarim, 
the son of Ham, who, indeed, according to Josephus, 
did first of all settle on the Nile, in Africa, there being 
none before him, which would justify their holding 
themselves, as in after ages, to be the Jirst of man- 
kind in that country. Respecting the Egyptians, 



68 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

Herodotus says, also, that Hermiles was one of their 
gods, who was second only to Pan (the Creator) 
himself, in their estimation, and that from the Egyp- 
tians the Greeks borrowed a knowledge of this god, 
p. 204, vol. i. 

This Hercules was, no doubt, the famous Nimrod^ 
founder of the tower of Babel, whom the Egyptians 
had deified, as Herodotus relates, and that his parents 
were Egyptians. All this the Grecian traveler 
learned of the Egyptians, as he knew nothing of the 
story of the Hebrew history, as written by Moses, 
that work having been translated into the Grecian 
language not till a hundred and fifty years, or so, 
after the time of Herodotus. This pretense of the 
Egyptians, about their being the first people of the 
human race, was but a pretense arising out of a vain 
desire to be thus esteemed ; the very thing to M'hich 
several others of the ancient nations have aspired, 
namely, the Greeks, as well as the people of China 
and the ancient nations of America. 

As to Nimrod, the hero of Babel, being the great 
type of all the Herculeses of the ancient nations, 
there can be no doubt ; for the legends of every 
country who have claimed him to be a god, represent 
him as always being armed with a club of enormous 
size, with which he slew the monsters of the earth — 
dreadful serpents, Avild beasts, &,c. In this very 
character the Bible represents him ; see Gen. x, S, 9, 
where it is written, that he was a mighty hunter, be- 
fore the Lord, which the Jewish rabbis interpret of 
his slaying wild beasts, which at that time greatly 
infested the country of the Euphrates, where he lived. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 69 

before he and Cash, his father, and Ham, his grand- 
father, went to Africa and founded Ethiopia. 

To find out the true origin of the god Hercules, 
Herodotus, the Greek, made a voyage from his own 
country, which was on the eastern side of the Medi- 
terranean, near to Italy, west of Greece, to the great 
city of Tyre, which was on the extreme eastern end 
of the Mediterranean, the capital of old Phccnicia, or 
old Canaan. The reason why this man took so much 
pains on this subject, was to see whether his coun- 
trymen were right, in their claim of Hercules to be 
their own natural god, and not derived from some 
other people. 

When he had arrived there, he soon found in the city 
of Tyre a tetrvple dedicated to Hercules. The next 
thing for him to learn was, how long ago it had been 
built. He, therefore, inquired of the priests how old 
the temple was. They replied that it had stood there 
ever since the building of the city, which was more 
than two thousand years. This would go back in 
time, from the period when Herodotus went to Tyre 
(which was about 450 B, C), quite up to the era and 
birth of Nimrod, which was about one hundred and 
twenty years after the flood. 

From this fact, Herodotus was convinced that 
Hercules was truly a Tyrian, or a negro god, who 
was also the god of the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, 
and Lybians, as well as of ancient Babylon, of which 
empire Nimrod was the founder, although it passed 
into other hands in process of time. 

We have said above that Nimrod, the grandson of 
Ham, was a negro, and after his death became a 



ro 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



negro god by deification, after the manner of the an- 
cients ; for Herodotns expressly says, vol, i, book ii, 
p. 246, that the Colchins and Egyptians, who were 
all one Avith the Tyrians, Zidonians, Ethiopians and 
Lybians, were hlack^ and had short airling hair. If 
such men were not negroes of the true stamp, we 
know not who are, and, also, that they were the 
children of Ham, or they had no progenitors at all. 

Herodotns says that, when he was in Africa, some 
men of Cyrene told him that they had been as fai 
into the interior as the temple of Jupiter Ammon, 
tliat they had conversed with Estarchiis, the king 
of Ammonia, who told them that the Lybian race, 
dwelling still further within the interior, and west of 
Ammonia, and far west of Egypt, were all blacks. 
This writer also says, that the whole country south 
of Jupiter Ammon (or the sheep god) was inhabited 
by blacks. 

The reader will not forget that all this country of 
Lybia was settled by Phut, the son of Ham, and 
was the remains of the Lybian empire, making it in- 
dubitably certain that the ancestors of the race, as 
cending up to the first black man, through every 
tribe and nation, were of the same kind of people. 

In support of the foregoing, or rather, in support 
of the doctrine of the three original complexions of 
the sons of Noah, we give the following, Avhich is a 
tradition of the ancient Marabouts, or negro priests 
of Africa. This tradition says, after the death of the 
great king, who came through the waters when the 
sea overflowed the world, that his three sons — one of 
whom was white, the other red and the third black— 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 71 

agreed among themselves to divide the property 
which was left them by their father, in an equal and 
equitable manner. When they had assorted the 
goods, the cattle, the gold, silver and precious stones, 
they sat down to smoke a friendly pipe, saying that 
next morning each one should take his own and do 
part where ho pleased. 

But the white brother slept only a short time, when 
he arose, seized upon all that was most valuable and 
disappeared. A little while after, the red brother 
awoke, having the same design, but finding that the 
white brother had gone, and with him all that was 
most valuable, he seized upon the residue and fled 
also, leaving behind only a few ragged garments, 
some pipes, tobacco, millet seed and rice. In the 
morning, when the sun was pretty well up, the black 
brother, having had his sleep to the full, arose also, 
and finding all was gone he become sad and sullen, 
while he sat down to smoke one of the pipes. — An 
qiietiVs History, vol. vi, p. 117. 

This curious fact, it seems, has somehow spread 
very far into the world and been handed in a very 
extraordinary manner down through many ages ; for 
the very Indians of America have a tradition of the 
same thing, namely, that the Great Spirit created 
three kinds of men, with three distinct complexions, 
who were the fathers of all the human race. This 
tradition was brought to light by the following cir- 
cumstance. 

"When the Floridas were at first erected into a ter- 
ritory of the United States, one of the earliest deeds 
of the Governor, William P. Duval, was directed to 



72 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



the instruction and civilization of the natives. For 
this purpose he called a meeting of the chiefs, in 
which he informed them of the wish of their great 
Father at Washington, that they should have schools 
and teachers among them, and that their children 
should be instructed like the children of white men. 
The chiefs listened with their customary silence and 
decorum to a long speech, setting forth the advantages 
that would accrue to them from this measure ; and 
when he had concluded they begged the interval of 
a day to deliberate on it. 

On the following day a solemn convocation was 
held, at which one of the chiefs addressed the gov- 
ernor, in the name of all the rest. My brother, said 
he, we have been thinking over the proposition of 
our great father at Washington, to send teachers and 
set up schools among us. We are very thankful for 
the interest he takes in our welfare ; but, after much 
deliberation, we have concluded to decline his offer. 
What will do very well for wliite men, will not do 
for red men. I know you white men say we all come 
from the same father and mother, but you are mis- 
taken. We have a tradition handed down from our 
forefathers, and we believe it, that the Great Spirit, 
when he undertook to make men, made the black 
man — it was his first attempt and pretty well for a 
beginning ; but he soon saw he had bungled : so he 
determined to try his hand again. He did so, and 
made the red man. He liked him much better than 
the black man, but still he was not exactly what he 
wanted. So he tried once more, and made the white 
man, and then he was satisfied. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 73 

You see, therefore, that you were made last, and 
that is the reason I call you my youngest brother. 
Now, when the Great Spirit had made the three men, 
he called them together and showed them three boxes. 
The first box was filled with books and maps and 
papers; the second, with hows and arroios, knives 
and tomahawks; the third, with spades, axes, hoes 
and hammers. These, my sons, said he, are the 
means by which you are to live ; choose among them 
according to your fancy. 

The white man, being the favorite, had the first 
choice. He passed by the box of working tools with- 
out notice ; but when he came to the weapons of war 
and hunting, he stopped and looked hard at them. 
The red man trembled, for he had set his heart upon 
that box. The white man, however, after looking 
upon It for a moment, passed on and chose the box 
of books and papers. The red man's turn came 
next, and you may be sure he seized with joy upon 
the bows, and arrows and tomahawks. As to the 
black man, he had no choice left but to put up with 
the box of tools. 

From this it is clear that the Great Spirit intended 
the white man should learn to read and write; to 
understand all about the moon and stars, and to 
make every thing, even rum and whisky. That 
the red man should be a first rate hunter and a 
mighty warrior, but he was not to learn any thing 
from books, as the Great Spirit had not given him 
any; nor was he to make whisky nor rum, lest he 
should kill himself with drinking. As to the black 
man, as he had nothing but working tools, it was 
4 



74 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



clear he was to work for the white and red man, 
which he has ever continued to do. 

But still further, in agreement with the opinion of 
there having been in the outset of time, after the 
flood, three different human complexions among men, 
we learn that there has been discovered, within a few 
years, by a traveler, some very curious paintings, in 
the subterranean chambers of the dead, beneath the 
ruins of one of the ancient cities of Egypt. These 
paintings were found executed on the walls of the 
royal sepulchers, and delineated three races of men, 
distinguished by their complexions, their forms and 
the signs of their grades in society. As to their com- 
plexions, they were white, red and black. The white 
men were placed in such attitudes as denoted them 
to have been legislators or lawgivers ; the red men 
as warriors, with the instruments of war and slaugh- 
ter in their hands; the black men, as servants or 
slaves, with the tools of husbandry in their grasp. 
These paintings were so curiously and perfectly 
executed, that, at the time of their late discovery, 
they were as bright and vivid as if but newly 
}iainted. — Herne^s Historical Researches in Africa, 
vol. ii, p. 90. 

Thus we have, as we believe, made out that the 
negro race were known, as they are now known, to 
have been black, with woolly heads, too near the 
time of the flood to admit of the operation of the 
climates to have done so strange a work as to have 
changed mankind from some other hue to that of 
black, and therefore shows that they were thus 
created, as before argued. 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 75 

We shall, therefore, close this section and pass to 
Other matters, which concern the fortunes of the chil- 
dren of Ham. 

What God has done, remains stedfast and true 
Nature leaps not its bounds, to products new. 
But always is the same, without a change, 
In men or trees, through nature's mighty range: 
What tho' a bear is white, in Arctic snows, 
And black, in warmer climes where blooms the rose- 
Yet 'tis a bear in nature, shape and gait, 
And cannot be a fox, at any rate. 



TO 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



FIFTH SECTION. 



The three sons of Noah, all born more than a hundred years before 
the Flood, aided in building the Ark — Reasons why the Divine 
Being produced two new races of men different from Adam^ 
Change of the climates of the Globe effected by the Flood — Beauty 
of the earth before the Flood — Wife of Ham and the wives of the 
other sons of Noah — Who they were — Respecting straight-haired 
black men — The cause, Ham, their father, having been woolly 
headed — Egyptian mummies— One man only between Noah and 
Adam — Landing of the Ark on a mountain — Noah descends — 
Plants a vineyard — Drinks new wine — Falls asleep — Ham's con- 
duct on the occasion — Noah's curse of the whole race of Ham— ■ 
Description of Mount Ararat — The first tents of Noah — Early 
settlements at the foot of the mountain — Plate of the Family of 
Noah, showing the different complexions of his sons — Arguments 
and reasons against the amalgamation of the races at first' — 
Arguments that Noah's curse of Ham was God's judicial decree 
that slavery was thus entailed upon the Negro race — Character 
of Ham, from his youth till the curse — Argument that the curse 
was not a mere prophesy, but a decrea judicial. 

The three sons of Noah, Shera, Ham and Japheth, 
who were all born about a hundred years before the 
flood, came and assisted their father in building the ark, 
as soon as they were old enough. These three sons 
were, no doubt, produced, at least two of them. Ham 
and Japheth, with constitutions differing from each 
other, as much as they differed in appearance, with 
a strict reference to the changes the earth was to un- 
dergo, by the effects of the universal deluge. 

Tlie Divine Being knew that when the flood should 



FOKTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 7T 

come and destroy the earth, by the violence and ope- 
rations of the waters, that the chmates would be 
greatly changed from what they had been from the 
creation. This effect was to be produced by the un- 
covering of vast regions of the subterraneous seas, 
which was done when the fountains of the great deep 
were broken up (see Gen. vii, 11); for in proportion 
as the water came up the land went down, which 
would produce, when the waters should retire (on 
account of more of this element remaining exposed 
to the air than was the case before the flood), an un- 
healthy varying humidity over the whole earth. 

There can be no doubt but the original beauty and 
arrangement of the countries of the globe have been 
greatly deranged by the rending currents of the 
overwhelming waters, the falling in of entire reigions 
of the original surface, occasioned by the quivering 
of the earth, as doubtless it was shaken by the Divine 
Power for that very purpose. By this means the 
coverings of the great deep were removed, and went 
down to the bottom of the seas. 

Prior to the flood, it is our belief that the whole 
surface of the earth was so united by land as not to 
be separated by water, except mere rivers, small 
lakes and streams, when both men and animals could 
and did pass, without interruption, quite around it. 
Instead oijive oceans, which now nearly swallow up 
the whole earth (one-fourth only excepted), there was 
every where beautiful lakes, great and small rivers, 
both salt and fresh, with brooks and fountains, so 
arranged as to beautify and adorn the whole, as well 
as accommodate every species of animal existence 



78 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

in the most happy and convenient manner — making 
it the abode of men and nations, where sickness and 
death, even after the fall, could scarcely enter, ex- 
cept by violence. 

One-half of the primitive earth's surface was water, 
and the other land; but the two elements were so 
mingled and arranged as that the exhalations, by the 
action of the sim's rays, produced a happy and an 
equal humidity of rains and dews, thus securing an 
equilibrium of temperature, health, and the growth of 
all things suitable for food, within the arctic and the 
antarctic circles. But when the flood came, it tore by 
its currents, shook and dissolved the beautiful earth, 
to a mass of entire chaos, as it was when it was first 
created, and before the water and the earthy matter 
were separated, by the Divine Power, primevally. 
Many regions of the ancient earth, where dwelt the 
first nations, between Adam and the flood, now lie 
buried beneath the weltering waves of seas and oceans. 

This change of the ancient surface from land to a 
disproportionate quantum of water, produced, as al- 
ready said, an entire alteration of the primitive cli- 
mates, causing a corresponding revolution, in the pro- 
ducts of the earth, on which men and animals were 
to subsist, unfavorable to health and long life ; thus 
aiding in (he abridgment of the age of man, from 
five, six, seven, eight, and even nine hundred years, 
down to the pitiful amount of " three score years and 
ten" or a little over, as it sometimes happens. 

On this very account, the change of the earth's 
^r5^ climates from a steady, even temperament; to 
those of a more changeable character, impregnated 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACTS. 79 

with fiery air in one region, and damp cold fogs in 
another, the fumes of stagnant morasses and waters, 
with pestilential winds commingling and pouring 
their death dealing influences over almost every coun- 
try; God saw proper, in view of all this, to produce 
two neiD races of men, who were adapted in their for- 
mation, size, color and constitutions, to this new state 
of things which was to take place by means of the 
flood. 

If such was not the reason for the Divine proced- 
ure, in producing the two new races, then it is hidden 
from mortal research, and belongs to the nnrevealed 
history of the councils of Heaven, or, at any rate, it 
is hidden from the penetration of the writer. From 
the account in the Book of Genesis, we find that the 
sons of Noah had taken them wives but a little be- 
fore the flood, as we learn they had no children till 
after they had made the voyage of that shoreless 
ocean, and the ark had rested on the mountain Ara- 
rat^ in Armenia of Asia Minor. The wives they 
married, as to blood and complexion, were the same 
with all the antediluvians, red or copper colored wo- 
men, as there were no others to marry. 

Japheth being a blue eyed white man, and Ham 
a woolly headed, black eyed black man, their chil- 
dren^ of necessity, would be of a mixed character in 
some cases, and in others there would be the likeness 
sometimes of one parent, and sometimes the likeness 
of the other. Had the wife of Ham been as black 
and woolly headed as he was himself, then their 
race would have been without any marked variation, 
always woolly headed, both male and female, forever 



80 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



as nature, without the intervention of a miracle, does 
not leap out of her courses in any of God's works. 

But as in the race of the white man, there are 
found black eyed and black headed individuals, 
with v/hat is called a dark complexion, even in white 
families, we believe that this is the result of the blood 
of Japheth's wife, who was copper colored, being mix- 
ed with his, who was a blue eyed white man. The 
same is the effect now, when the whites mix with the 
Indians : or the Arabs, Hindoos, or the people of the 
East Indies, some of the offspring have fair and 
white complexions, with light blue eyes and auburn 
hair, as well as often white, and even red hair, while 
others are much darker, with jet colored hair, and 
eyes of the same description. In process of time, 
the influence of the male blood of the white man will 
run out entirely the influence of the female blood as 
to complexion, if no further mixing takes place, 
there remaining no trace of it, except in the hair and 
the eyes, which is known to be true. 

The same rule operates in the case of the negro 
m,a7i when his blood is mixed with Indian blood, 
the power of the male overcomes and runs out the 
female, in relation to her color, causing the oflspring 
to become thoroughly negro, if there is no further 
mixing as to complexion, while the hair and contour 
of the face will continue to be in imitation of the 
mother in many instances, but in many more it will 
be like the father; this is also knov/n to be true. 

This, in ovn- opinion, was the way the marriage 
of Ham with the antediluvian girl operated, and thus 
in the first ages, and as is now the case, there was 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



81 



produced the woolly headed and the straight haired 
negroj.such as were some of the Egyptians, the Ethi- 
opians, the Lybians and the Canaanites, with the 
Garthagenians, and many of the Africans at the 
present time, bnt all pure negroes. 

From this fact, there can scarcely be a doubt, that 
the early nations took advantage of this trait of na- 
ture's operations, by mixing the blood of such males 
and females, as had not the woolly head, together, on ac- 
count of their being far more comely to look upon, 
avoiding whollj', or generally, the negroes of the 
other description, which was perfectly natural, and 
even commendable. 

In this way there was produced, and ever has been, 
two races of black or negro men. The straight hair- 
ed negro has ever been found to be more intellectual, 
enterprizing and comely to look upon than the other 
race, who, from earliest time, have been made 
slaves of. The woolly heads have always, as a peo- 
ple, been less inclined to improvement, either physi- 
cally or mentally. By this means, it is seen that the 
two races had early a mighty barrier placed between 
them, so that when a woolly head married with a 
straight haired black person, it was held as great a 
disgrace for the straight haired one, as it is now, 
when the whites amalgamate with the blacks. 

This race of negroes are found to have heads shap- 
ed more after the Caucasian, or European model, 
which was derived from the blood of Ham's antedi- 
luvian wife ; while tlie other race of negroes, having 
from ajjiniti/ of \ooks, feelings, propensities, and mor- 
al abilities, clave to each other in marriage, or sexual 



82 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



union, they have therefore propagated, and perfected 
a progeny like themselves, wholly inferior to all the 
other people of the human race, who were never the 
authors of any thing great on the earth, no not even 
as imitators of others, except now and then an indi- 
vidual. 

With this view, we see how it has happened that 
when an Egyptian mummy is found, who represents 
the leading class of those ages in that country, they 
have almost always straight hair, which circumstance 
has puzzled physiologists and the antiquary not a 
little. This fact, however, changes not their charac- 
ter as to their origin, for they are truly the descend- 
ants of Ham, as are the other sort of negroes, but 
simply accounts for acts done by the race, which seem 
above themselves, if they were nothing more nor bet- 
ter, intellectually, than the woolly heads are at the 
present day. Neither does it change their condition, 
in relation to the purposes of the Divine providence 
respecting them, as they are referred to by direct 
prophesy, in a very particular manner, as we shall 
soon be compelled to show. 

Thus we have made a few remarks on the subject 
of the wives of Ham and Japheth, because we have 
often heard the inquiry made, who did Ham marry 
for a wife, if he was the first and only black person 
on the earth when he took him a wife, and brought 
her through the flood in the ark? 

Thus we have passed through, in a brief manner, 
several interesting topics. But we are now compell- 
ed to approach another subject, which, to many minds 
at the present day, is a stumbling block of no small 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 83 

magnitude; and this is the airful curse of the holy 
and righteous Noah, the patriarchal prophet of God, 
the only person who was found to be righteous of all 
the antediluvian race living in his time; see Gen. vii, 
1. Noah was born but one hundred and seventy- 
eight years after the death of Adam, whose father 
was the Patriarch Lamech, born one hundred and 
eighty-two years before Adam's death, there being 
but 07ie intermediate Patriarch between Noah and 
Adam; of 7iecessiti/, therefore, how intimate must the 
mind of Noah have been with all that appertained to 
the knowledge of God and his providences from the 
beginning till his own time, and how capable he must 
have been of instructing his own house in true 
knowledge, as well as the arts after the flood, as he 
lived three hundred and fifty years after that event. 

It was from the lips of this man that the everlast- 
ing God chose to announce the curse or malediction 
of servitude and slavery upon Ham and his race, as 
it is written. Gen. ix, 25 — 27. 

The reason of this terrible malediction of Noah 
upon his son Ham should be carefully sought after, 
or we may be led to accuse ere we may be aware of 
it. Such a proceeding as being captious and unjust^ 
which would be a lamentable circumstance to discov- 
er in the character of a man, who is named in Scrip- 
ture as one among five of the holiest of the prophets, 
namely, Daniel, Job, Moses, Samuel and Noah, see 
Ezek. xiv, 14, and Jer. xv, 1, and the holiest man 
upon the earth just prior to the flood. 

It appears from the Scripture, that immediately 
after the subsiding of the waters of the deluge, and 



84 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

the ark had grounded on a small flat, or space of 
land, between the fingers of Mount Ararat, which 
fingers, or points, commence to divide at an altitude 
of about three miles above the common level of the 
earth, at the base of the mountain : we say it appears 
that Noah, as soon as the country had become drain- 
ed of the waters, descended from the great ship of 
the flood down the mountain to the more level grounds 
of the country. On the side he went down, the 
mountain slopes off from the flat above named (which 
is about half a mile in width. — Porter), in a gradual 
manner, till lost in the country beyond, while on all 
the other sides it is a horrible series of ledges, per- 
pendicular cliffs, and benches of everlasting stones 
and rocks, going up from the base of the mountains 
to the extreme points of the fingers, above spoken of, 
to the prodigious height of five and a half miles, where 
they are covered with unmelted snows of all ages 
since the flood. 

Fifteen cubits and upward did the waters of that 
deluge rise, even above the extreme points of the fin 
gers of this mountain. See Gen. vii, 19, 20. 

How dreadful was this! What a horrible abyss, 

Where the winds, and the lightning and thunder, 

Went down in the deep! Where ocean waves sleep, 

And rent the vast deluge asunder. 

Here rested alone old Neptune's salt throne 

On the face of the watery star, 

Around which, in glee, the fish of the sea 

Played joyous in circles afar. 

His horses stood near, in their pride, without fear 
O'er the deluge's wide waters to roam, 
Where at his nod they went forth with the god, 
And paw'd with their feet the white foam. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



85 



For a particular description of Mount Ararat, and 
the vast plains which He at its base, in a semicircu- 
lar form, extending as far as the eye can reach, as well 
as an account of the tradition of the natives, who are 
Mohammedans, respecting the great ship of the moun- 
tain, see /Sir Robert Ker Ported s Travels in that coun- 
try, ancient Tartary, Persia and Chaldea. This vessel, 
the great ship of the mountain, or the ark of Noah, 
according to Dr, Arbuthnot's computation, was equal 
in its tonnage to a fleet of eighty-one ships of a thou- 
sand tons each, and sixty-two tons over, which was 
sufficient to carry all the Scriptures state it did, and 
considerable to spare. 

From this lofty mountain range, Noah descended 
with his family, which, besides himself, consisted of 
only seven persons, who, as soon as he had found a 
place that suited him, settled there, and in a short 
time became a husbandman, or, in other words, a farm- 
er. The place he selected, was doubtless, in the great 
vale which stretches out southeasterly from the foot 
of the mountain, where the ark grounded, some 
twenty miles, presenting to the eye an ocean of green 
foliage, which had but newly grown, after the reced- 
ing of the waters, and presented to the voyagers a 
rapturous sight, who, for a year had been shut up in 
the ark from the light of the sun, and for another 
year, no doubt, or even more, had remained on the 
mountain for the earth to dry, their descent, therefore, 
down to the green earth, was a joyous journey of 
some eight or ten miles only. 

It was from some cleft of this mountain, which 
was in latitude 35° north, that the dove found the 



8G 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



green olive leaf, she plucked and brought to a wm 
dow of the ark, when she had been sent out the 
second time. It was on that mountain where ail the 
animals, saved in the ark, were let loose, to roam in 
the forests, except such as were domesticated. There 
was heard the loud roaring of the lion, reverberating 
among the ledges of Mount Ararat, the bleat of the 
timid deer, the goat and the sheep. From this place 
behemoth, the unicorn, or rhinoceros, the elephant, 
the camel, the giraffe, the wild ass, the fleet and 
beautiful horse, were turned loose, with all the hosts 
of the ark, each rejoicing, according to their natures, 
in their recovered liberties. 

It was from this range of Mountain grandeur, that 
the shrill scream of the great eagle of the antedilu- 
vian world was heard, as he with his mate circled 
the dizzy heights of that tallest of the Armenian hills. 
Here were the notes of the first birds, after the flood, 
carolled forth, who were the parents of all the feath- 
ered race of the globe, except the fowls of the waters. 

But lest we digress too far in our imaginings, we 
will return again to Noah and his family, who had 
become agriculturists, as we have before said. Among 
other pursuits of husbandry, Noah planted on his 
land a vineyard, the seeds of which he brought, no 
doubt, together with all other seeds of use to man. 
from beyond the flood. 

It is very probable, that this first settlement of the 
Patriarch was made near the head waters of the 
Euphrates, as that river has its origin in the Ararat 
range of mountains, and runs in a south-easterly di- 
rection, eniptying into the Persian gulf, by several 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 87 

mouths, which gulf is but a bay of the Eastern, or 
Indian, ocean. 

There, at the head waters of that river, in a warm 
and genial clime, which compares with about the 
middle of North Carolina, surrounded by the beauti- 
ful scenery of the country, having the awful heights 
of Ararat in full view, the home of the ark, the last 
relic of the maritime architecture of the first ages of 
the earth, at rest in its glory ; here it was that Noah 
set up his tents and began his labors, assisted by his 
sons and their wives. [See plate.] 

At this place, from necessity, his sons must have 
remained, at least, fifty years, till the children born 
in the respective families were grown up, and others 
born of these, and grown also, marrying with their 
own respective families, as did the children of Adam, 
at the beginning. 

It cannot be supposed for a moment, that Noah 
would allow the three distinct complexions, or races, 
of his family to mingle or amalgamate, for he knew 
it was God who had produced, for a wise purpose, 
these very characters ; amalgamation, therefore, would 
certainly have destroyed what God so evidently had 
ordained and caused to exist. The amazing fact of 
the existence of the three complexions, of his own 
sons, by the same mother, was to Noah a sufficient 
reason, even without a Divine revelation on the sub- 
ject, that these were to be kept sacredly asimder, and 
pure from each other's blood forever. That this 
view of the subject was held as binding upon these 
families for many ages, we ha.ve no doubts — each 
dreading to break over a barrier which the Creator 



88 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

had evidently placed between them ; amalgamation, 
therefore, during the three hmidred and fifty years of 
Noah's life after the flood, it is not likely often hap- 
pened among them. 

But from the exueaie fruitfulness of these families, 
there were produced, by the time fifty years had 
gone by, great multitudes of men, women and chil- 
dren, spreading out in all directions around the pa 
triarch Noah, their common father ; who, in cultirat- 
ing the ground and fighting the wild beasts, which 
by this time had filled the wilderness, presented a 
great company of gigantic forest adventurers. These 
adventurers, in pursuing the game of the wilds, in 
all directions, for the sake of their flesh for food, and 
their skins for clothing, would naturally fall in with 
other tracts of arable lands, streams, lakes, brooks, 
and rivers ; along the banks of which, wonderful 
discoveries of flowry vales and mountains would be 
made. Broad savannas, abounding with all kinds of 
beasts and fowls — the waters with fishes, and the 
wilderness with berries, fruits, roots and esculent 
herbs. Nuts of all trees, spices, gums, aromatics and 
balms, frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon, and odors, 
wild honey, grapes and flowry regions with perpetu- 
al verdure, could but captivate the hearts of these 
pioneers of the wilds of the Euphrates and Tigris. 

The news of such discoveries being continually 
reported through the settlements, excited the forma- 
tion of new companies, who, planting other neighbor- 
hoods in all directions, soon to the delighted eyes of 
Noah and his sons, occupied a large district, with 
multitudes of whiie, red, and black inhabitants; who 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



89 



were pushing forward the respective interests of 
their clans, or famihes, with all the zeal of a mighty 
host of new country adventurers, dressed, both men 
and women, as well as children, in the shaggy skins 
of such animals as they could overcome and destroy. 

But lest we should wander too far, on account of 
the exuberance of the subject, we will return to the 
chief matter in hand, and this is the case of Ham 
and his people. In order to do this, we shall find it 
necessary to return again to the dwelling of Noah. 
and his plantation, at the time when, as yet, his sons 
and their families had not gone from thence, in quest 
of new places of settlement. In doing this, we Avill 
not forget the vineyard, which Noah planted first of 
all, after the ]"esting of the ark, and his removal out 
of it, down the momitain Ararat, from which, in its 
season, he gathered the grapes, and pressing out the 
juice of the same, drank, and became inebriated, or 
inclined to sleep — as we disallow of his being wicked- 
ly drunk at all. 

That he was thus affected, is not much to be won- 
dered at, as Noah was, at the time of this occurrence, 
more than six hundred years old, when the weak- 
ness of old age must have began to unstring the iron 
nerves of antediluvian origin, such as characterized 
all the people before the flood. Now, during the ef- 
fect of the wine, which doubtless was in its unfer- 
mented condition, like the new juice of apples, Noah 
fell asleep, as any old man would have done, after 
drinking so invigorating a draught. This took 
place in his tent, when, during the sleep, from some 
involuntary motion of his limbs, his robe, mantle, or 
4* 



90 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

garment, which it appears was but loosely cast about 
him, became deranged, and fell from his person, while 
in a recumbent and unconscious condition, there alone 
in his repose. 

Why, or on what account, Ham came to intrude 
on the sacredness of his father's rest, is not known ; 
but so it was. At this juncture, the two other sons 
of Noah, Japlieth and Shem, were not far oif ; for, 
when Ham had been within the tent, and had seen 
the condition of his father, he was noticed by them 
to rush out in a state of very great excitement, yel- 
ling and exploding with laughter. But as soon as 
the fit had somewhat abated, Shem and Japheth 
made inquiry, respecting the cause of so much mirth 
and uproar, when they were seized with a fearful 
consternation of mind, and finding a garment of 
sufficient size, they extended it between their per- 
sons, and went backward into the tent, when they 
spread it over their father, and retired in silence. See 
Gen. ix, 23. 

The delicate and thoughtful manner in which the 
two brothers treated their father, on this distressing 
occasion, is suflicient evidence of their views of the 
awful conduct of Ham, showing that they considered 
what he had done was a crime of the deepest dye ; 
a transaction, if perpetrated at the present time, would 
mark the actor as a character of the basest and low- 
est kind. 

But if the two brothers, Shem and Japheth, were 
shocked at the behavior of Ham, what were the feel- 
ings of his father, when he came to know the fact? 
From what followed, we learn that the Patriarch was 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 91 

deeply grieved on account of the reckless impiety of 
Ham, as well as offended on his own personal behalf; 
for, on calling this son before him, Noah said, by the 
spirit of Prophesy, words too terrible to fall from 
a parents lips, without a reason entirely resistless. 
The words which he pronoimced, and was moved 
thereto by the third person of the Trinity, the Holy 
Ghost, contained in them a curse, a dreadful curse, 
which not only covered the person and fortunes of 
Ham, but that of his whole posterity also, to the very 
end of time, for aught that appears to the contrary. 

For an account of this appalling anathema, see 
Genesis ix, 24-27, as follows: ^^And Noah awoke 
from his wine, and kneio what his younger son 
had done unto him : and he said, cursed be Ca- 
naan (Ham); a servant of servants shall he be 
unto his brethren. And he said, blessed be the Lord 
God of She7}i ; and Canaan (Ham) shall be his ser- 
vant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall 
dwell in the tents of Sheni ; and Canaan [Ham] shall 
be his servant^ 

But lest the reader should become perplexed, re- 
pectin g the application of this anathema, on account 
of the text above referred to being, in the English, 
^^ cursed Canaan^'' instead of '■'■cursed Ham,^^ as it 
should have been translated ; we state that the Ara- 
bic copy of the book of Genesis, which is a language 
of equal authority with the Hebrew, and originally 
the very same, reads " cursed Ham^^ the father of 
Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his 
brethren. 

In this sense it has ever been understood by all 



92 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



commentators, in every age, on the sacred writings. 
Bishop Newton thus understood the passage, who 
also refers the reader to the Arabic Bible for the true 
readmg, as does Adam Clark. 

Newton maintains, page 19, at considerable length, 
that the curse of Noah upon Ham, had a general 
and an interminable application to the whole Hamite 
race, in placing them under a peculiar liability of 
being enslaved by the races of the two other brothers. 

Were not the above opinion the truth on that point, 
it would be a difficult matter to view the Divine pro- 
cedure in that case otherwise than unjust; for why 
should Canaan, who was the yoimgest son of Ham, 
be selected from among the four to be cursed, and 
laid under a feculiar liability to be enslaved in his 
posterity, more than the other three brothers, for the 
act of their father. But when that Scripture is read 
and understood, as the Arabic records and under- 
stands it, the subject becomes plain, simple, and 
straight before us. Ham is the man who is denounced 
with his posterity, who were to become the slaves of 
the posterities of the two other races, and among 
themselves ; for the text says, they should be the 
"servants of servants," as well as the servants of the 
hired servants of the other races, as is the fact in all 
countries, and has ever been thus. 

It is not our opinion that for this one act of Ham 
that dreadful curse fell upon him and his race. It 
was not for that one act alone, but on account of his 
whole character and nature (which one act was, how- 
ever, in awful keeping with his previous life), that 
the curse of slavery was entailed on his race. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 93 

That the character of Ham's life, up to the time 
when he committed that unchaste, unlihal, and un- 
holy deed, had been but a continued scene of sin and 
outrage, is strongly intimated in the words made use 
of by Noah, when he denounced him, and said 
^^ cursed Ham^'' not cursed he Ham, as the English 
translators have rendered it, supplying the word 6(°, 
as if he had not been thus frior to that time. The 
word he is not in the original, nor is it needed in the 
English translation. 

The words, cursed Ham, therefore, signify, in the 
Hebrew, that he had been alioays a bad person, even 
from childhood ; for let it not be forgotten that Ham, 
at the very time he did that act, was more than a 
hundred years old. All the powers of his mind were 
as matured then as they ever could be ; the deed, 
therefore, was but a trait of the gigantic negro's gene- 
ral life and character. Had Ham, on discovering the 
condition of his patriarchal father in his sleep, retired 
abashed and sorrowful, and had kept the thing to 
himself, or had related what had taken place with 
downcast eyes and real mortification, it would have 
been the evidence of the good intentions and pious 
state of his heart and temperament of mind, as well 
as, in a degree, would have argued well in relation to 
his former character. The curse, therefore, against 
Ham and his race was not sent oat on the account 
of that 07ie sin only. But as the deed was heinous, 
and withal was in unison with his icJiole life, charac- 
ter and constitutional make, j)rior to that deed, the 
cuTse, which had slumbered long, was let loose upon 
him and his posterity, as a general thing, placing 



94 



ORIGIN, CHARx\CTER, AND 



them under the ban of slavery, on account of his and 
their foreseen characters. 

Noah did not and could not, as a holy and good 
mail, have pronoianped that curse in a vindictive and 
furious manner upon Ham. No, this he did not do ; 
it was very far from being thus. When the great * 
Patriarch was moved upon by the Holy Ghost, to 
speak as he did on that occasion, we have no doubt 
but he did it with real pain and sorrow of heart, and 
yet it tnust be done, as it was dictated by the influ- 
ence of the EternaVs mandate. 

Might we be allowed to imagine the state of Noah's 
feelings on that occasion, and also to give words to 
those feelings, they would be as follows : " Oh Ham, 
my son, it is not for this one deed alone which 3'ou 
have just committed that I have, by God's command, 
thus condemned you and your race; but the Lord 
has shown me that all your descendants will, more 
or less, be like yon, their father, on which account it 
is determined by the Creator that you and your peo- 
ple are to occupy the lowest condition of all the fam- 
ilies among mankind, and even be enslaved as brute 
beasts, going down in the scale of human society, 
beyond and below the ordinary exigencies of mortal 
existence, arising out of war, revolutions and con- 
flicts, for you loill and must be, both in times of 
peace and war, a despised, a degraded and an op- 
pressed race." 

God, therefore, foreseeing the end from the begin- 
ning, saw good to direct the mind of Noah, who was 
a prophet, to declare to the world what should come 
to pass concerning all his sons, as well as Ham, in 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 95 

the most specific and particular manner. By this 
procedure, God has set up, .as it were, way marks and 
data, by which, in after ages, men should come to 
see, know and believe in the veracity of his word, as 
spoken by his prophets, on account of ihe fulfillment 
.of the same, in every iota thereof, not only in relation 
to the destinies of Noah's three sons, but in all things 
else. 

On the subject of a child's treating its parents with 
ijitended disrespect, see the opinion of God himself, 
Deut. xxvii, 16, who, in that place says, "cursed be 
he that setteth light by his father or his mother, and 
all the people shall say amen." This sin, the treat- 
ing a father or mother disrespectfully, was, by the 
law of Moses, punished with death. See Deut. xxi, 
18—21. Consequently, according to this law, Ham 
was morally worthy of death. 

But lest the reader may suspect that this terrible 
character of Ham is almost if not entirely imaginary, 
we shall, as promised some pages above, give the 
history of that deed of his from the pen of Josephus. 
See Jewish Antiquities, chap, vi, book i, p. 22, as fol 
lows : " When after the deluge the earth was settled 
in its former condition, Noah set about its cultivation; 
and when he had planted it with vines, and when 
the fruit was ripe and he had gathered the grapes in 
the season, and the wine was ready for use, he offer- 
ed a sacrifice and feasted, and being inebriated fell 
asleep and lay naked in an unseemly manner. When 
Ham, his youngest son, saw this, he came laughing 
and showed him to his brothers." 

From this evidence, the fact of Ham having treated 



96 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

his father with great disrespect and wicked levity, is 
fairly made out, and therefore deserves the character 
we have described as his, and the punishment award- 
ed to him and his race, hoih. judicial and as a result 
of his and their natures. 

But says one, we have always held that this curse 
of Noah, as it is called, upon the negro race, was a 
kind of unmeaning rhapsody of the father of Ham, 
and long ago became obsolete and perfectly nugatory. 
To unhinge, therefore, a notion so fraught with light- 
ness and falsehood, we exhibit the following, from 
the pen of inspiration, and having a strong relation 
in kind and character, so far as relates to the curses 
of God, or denunciations of the Highest, which he 
has seen fit to publish in the annals of truth — the 
Holy Scriptures, we bring them to view as parallels 
to the case of the denunciation of Ham, believing as 
fully in their perfect accomplishment as we do in 
that of the curse of Noah upon Ham and his race. 

The first case of the kind which occurs on the 
sacred page, is found Gen. iii, 14, and reads as follows : 
"And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because 
thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, 
and above every beast of the field : upon thy belly 
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of 
thy life." This curse on the serpent, which was ut- 
tered more than sixteen hundred years before the 
curse of Noah upon Ham and his race, has lost noth- 
ing of its force and true meaning, though vastly more 
ancient and prolix in its interpretation, as commonly 
understood. 

A second case, in the character of a curse, is found 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



97 



in the same chapter, as above, at the 17th verse, re- 
specting the ground, which, on account of Adam's 
sin, in hearkening to his wife's counsel, was cursed, 
so that it is supposed to have been far less prolific, 
from the time of that sin to the flood, and from the 
flood to this day, than it would otherwise have been 
liad it not been thus cursed by the Supreme Being. 
The exact form or words of this curse are as follows : 
'■^Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shcdt 
thou cat of it all the days of thy UfeP Has this 
curse failed of being continually fulfilled in all 
ages, though vastly more ancient than the curse of 
Noah upon his son Ham — and were all equally 
judicial.^ 

No man discredits the complete accomplishment 
of the patriarch Jacob's predictions respecting the for- 
tunes of his twelve sons, in their posterities. See 
Gen. xlix, from the 3d to the 27th verse inclusive, 
where the wonderful and specific history of that pro- 
phet's foresight is related. 

Add to the above the terrible curses of God, by the 
jiiouth of Moses, upon the whole Hebrew or Jewish 
tribes, if they forsook the law, which in process of 
time they did : and how awfully and perfectly those 
curses were fulfilled, all men know. For a history 
of those curses or judicial acts of God, see the entire 
chapter, the 28th of Deuteronomy. Now, with all 
this before our eyes and impressed upon our belief, 
are we to undervalue the same kind of inspiration 
because it is found to aflect a subject on which some 
men have made up their minds not to believe, name- 
ly, the curse of Noah, or God's judicial act upon Ham, 
5 



98 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

and his foresight of the slavery of that race, as shown 
to Noah, and say it was never thus intended? 

The appointment of this race of men to servitude 
and slavery was a judicial act of God, or, in other 
words, was a divifie judgment. There are three evi- 
dences of this, which are as follows : 

First — The fact of their being created or produced 
in a lower order of intellectuality than either of the 
other races (as we shall prove in due order), their 
forms, natures or passions agreeing therewith, is evi- 
dence of the preordi7iatio7i of their fate as slaves on 
the earth, as none but God could have do7ie or deter- 
mined this thing. 

Second — The announcement of God by the mouth 
of Noah, relative to the whole race of Ham, pointing 
out in so many words, in the clearest and most spe- 
cific manner, that they were adjudged to slavery, as 
we have already shoAvn from the book of Genesis, 
agreeing with the first witness as a1)ove, namely, 
that they were foreordained, and appointed to the 
condition they hold among men by the divine Mind, 
solely on account of the foreseen character they would 
sustain as a race, who, therefore, were thus judicially 
put beneath the supervision of the other races. 

Third — The great and everywhere pervading fact 
of their degraded condition, both now and in all time, 
more or less, is the very climax-witness that, in the 
abo^)^ ^t)ticki«ian,'We are not mistaken— namely, that 
the negro race, as a people, are judicially given over "to 
a state or peculiar liability of being enslaved by the 
other races. 

Why the Supreme Being saw fit to create or to 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 99 

produce such a race thus low in the scale of human 
existence, and at the same time foreseeing their char- 
acter and consequent condition on the earth, is more 
than can be kno\vti by human research, and, of neces- 
sity, is therefore none of our business. It might as 
well be inquired, why God made the world at all and 
peopled it by the two first of our race, seeing he fore- 
saw all they would do in opposition to his will and 
l3cnevolent designs. Such inquiries are probably 
beyond our depth of investigation, while facts are not 
thus hidden from us, and one of the great facts of God's 
jurisprudence among men appears to be the judicial 
appointment of the black race to slavery. 

Here it is proper for us to state, that many persons, 
with all abolitionists, believe that what Noah said on 
that occasion was merely jiropJietic and not judicial. 
If prophetic merely, then it would follow that the 
slavery of the negro race was by Noah foretold, the 
same as other loicked acts of men were foretold by 
the prophets, but not, therefore, sanctioned by the 
Holy Spirit. This view of theirs, however, will not 
bear thus to be softened down, on account of the fear- 
ful word "cursed,''^ which raises it above the ordinary 
foresight of the prophets, respecting the wicked acts 
of men, and makes it a direct decree. 

It is written in the Scriptures, ^^ cursed is every 
one that hangeth on a tree," Gal. iii, 13, and ^^ciirsed 
is every one who loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ." 
Are not these recorded as judicial, and, on account 
of tl:ie word cursed^ amount to far more than a mere 
prophesy ? 

So, also, as relates to the announcement of Noah, 



100 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

the word cursed being the governing idea, relating to 
negro slavery, makes it a judicial decree, which in- 
volves more than a mere prophesy, placing its fulfill- 
ment beyond the fortuitous or conungent acts of men. 

The whole three x^erses of Noah's curse on the race 
of Ham is delivered in the imperative mood, making 
their accomplishment sure, above and beyond all 
contingencies. That a day of final judgment is to 
come, is not more strongly and decidedly set down 
by the inspired writer than is the doom of the negro 
race in the particular of servitude, and will not be 
more certainly fulfilled than has been and is now ful- 
filling the word of the Lord by Noah. 

On the subject oi judicial curses, see Deuteronomy, 
the 27th and 2Sth chapters, in wliich there are no 
less than sixteen such decrees or curses, all of which, 
however, were conditionally suspended over the 
heads of the twelve tribes. If they would obey the 
law, then blessings should be their portion, but if they 
transgressed in the particulars mentioned in those 
sixteen verses above alluded to, then tliey were 
cursed, and judicially so. 

Some of those curses are as follows — see the 15th, 
16th, 17th, 18th, and I9th verses of the 28th chap- 
ter of Dent.: "But it shall come to pass, if thou 
wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, 
to observe to do all his commandments and his stat- 
utes which I command thee this day, that all these 
curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. 
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt 
thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket 
and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 101 

and the fruit of tliy land, the increase of thy kine 
and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shaU thou be 
when thou comest in, and cursed shaU thou be 
when thou goest out." 

Now, who will deny but the above curses were ju- 
dicially pronounced, though conditionally. But in 
the ciirse of Noah, which was by the authority of the 
same God, there was no condition at all, it was a di- 
rect cw'se, without remedy, palliation, or chance of 
escape. How is it possible, therefore, for any one 
to maintain that the curse of Noah on the race of 
Ham was not a bona Jide judicisil decree, not a mere 
prophesy, the fulfillment of which should happen 
contingently ; but a decree which should be fulfilled, 
irrespective of contingencies, in an arbitrary and ex- 
ecutive manner. 

Thus we believe that sufficient evidence appears 
from the Scriptures, of the judicial appointment of 
that people to servitude. In view of this belief, and 
of that fact, the inquiry naturally arises here, wheth- 
er it is a sin to enslave a negro. To this we are 
compelled, even against our sympathies and precon- 
ceived opinions arising out of our education^ to an- 
swer ?io, it is no sin in pri?iciple ; the rnanner in which 
it may be done may be sinful, as it is in our power to 
abuse any and all the privileges put in our hands by 
the Divine Being. 

We are driven to the above conclusion by sheer 
logical violence, and as follows: 

If God appointed the race of Ham judicially to 
slavery, and it were a heinous sin to enslave one, or 
all the race, how then is the appointment of God to 



102 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

go into effect? The reader can but see, as well as 
/eeZ, the dilemma. The judicial acts of God do 
never involve the actual commission of sin any more 
than his works, or acts of mercy and benevolence — 
It is the icay we use such acts, as they relate to men, 
that sin arises, and not out of the acts of God them- 
selves, as the primary and moving principle of sin. 
If the actor, in his doings in this life, is aware that 
he is an instrument in the hands of the Divine Provi- 
dence of fulfilling, or carrying into effect a divine 
judgment, he is only to be careful how, and in what 
spirit, he does the thing, lest he should be found 
acting as of himself, and independent of God, mak- 
ing the execution of the Divine will his oicn vin- 
dictive, arbitrary, or thoughtless work : such a course 
is sin. 

The destruction of the old Canaanites, by the Jews, 
was a judicial act of God, who straightly command- 
ed them, by the ministration of Moses (see Deut. 
vii, 2), that they should not spare them, nor show 
mercy or pity toward them ; and yet they were not 
to be wantonly cruel or murderous, as if they were 
acting entirely from mere fury and love of butchery. 
That dreadful affair, the exterminating decree of God 
against the negroes of old Canaan, was not by the 
will of man, but of God ; the instruments, therefore, 
were not to sin in its execution by deeds of useless 
eruelty and ferocity ; if they did, then such acts were 
sinful. 

God does never sanction sin, nor call for the com- 
mission of moral evil to forward any of his purposes ; 
wherefore we come to the conclusion, that it is not 



FOUTUNESj OF THE NEGRO RACE. 103 

sinful to enslave the negro race, providing it is done 
in a tender, fatherly and thoughtful manner, having 
the fear of God before our eyes, in a transaction of 
the kind, doing no violence to the bodies or minds 
of such persons as slaves or servants, beyond proper 
and necessary correction. 

This is as easly accomplished as is the government 
of a family, in the ordinary sense of the word, or the 
good men of old could not have done it, as they most 
assuredly did, upon which we shall treat in due or- 
der. It is the abuses of the institution of negro sla- 
very, which have recently, by the Divine Providence, 
aroused the sympathies of men, but not the principle 
itself, as God cannot resist his own determinations. 

There is no man except infidels, and those who 
are tinctured with principles of the infidel character, 
who for a moment doubts the judicial decision of 
God in relation to tmirderers, as announced to Noah, 
and all mankind through him. This act of God is 
found on the page of the Divine record, in the sanie 
chapter with the act respecting the negro race, name 
ly, the ixth, at the 5th and 6th verses, as follows : 
"And surely your blood of your lives will I require 
* * * at the hand of man : at the hand of every 
man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso 
sheddeth man's blood (by murder), by man shall his 
blood be shed: for in the image of God made he 
man !" 

This judicial act was announced, not to the ears 
of the half civilized and barbarous Jews, as some 
men speak, when the law of Moses was given, but 
to the wise and enlia:htened house of Noah, about 



104 OPwIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



eight hundred 3^ears before the law of Moses; it 
was, therefore, the adjudication of God, at the head 
of time, to all the nations who might arise on the 
earth to the end of the world, respecting murderers. 
This passage is allowed by all to be judicial^ but 
not the other by many, though by the same authority, 
and equally specifically noted down, and without any 
condition. 

This judicial act of God is responded to in the ten 
commandments, where it is written, " thou shalt not 
kill," or, in other words, thou shalt not murder ; not 
meaning, as many contend, that a murderer must 
not be killed — not even by a public execution. So 
also is the act of God, in relation to the judical con- 
demnation of the race of Ham, equally responded to 
in the ten commandment, or law of Moses, where 
it is written, " thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
tnan servant (or slave), nor his maid servant," or fe- 
male slave, as it is in the original. If the servants, 
or slaves, alluded to in that commandment, which 
is the tenth and last, were not therein recognized as 
'property^ how could a slave be a subject of covetous- 
ness as well as an ox, or an ass, creatures no one de- 
nies but were property, which are classed together in 
that command, and referred to in the same light equal- 
ly, as being property, and as objects that might be 
coveted as such. 

Thus far we have treated on the curse of Noah 
against Ham, or, in other words, upon the judicial 
act of God, in relation to that people. Our next en- 
deavor will, therefore, be to ascertain wlielher this 
judgment was acted upon, recognized or sanctioned 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



105 



by the next dispensation following that of the Patri- 
archs, namely, the law of Moses and his successors — 
the prophets, kings, nobles and elders of the Jewish 
government — as was all the other judicial acts of 
God, prior to the law. 

Thus Ham, the sooty monarch of his race, 
Adjudg'd of Heaven to fill a servant's place, 
Sits regal on his throne, in frowning ire, 
The king of slaves, their patriarch and sire, 
Whose state of servitude can never cease, 
Till the end of time shall bring the grand release. 



]06 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



SIXTH SECTION. 



Proofs from the Scriptures, that the curse of Noah upon the race of 
Ham, as ai judicial act, is indorsed by tlie law of Moses — Compar- 
ative view of all the orders of servants among the Jews, as tho 
hired Hebrew servant, the bought Hebrew servant, the voluntary 
Hebrew servant, and the Negro or Canaanite slave — Remarks on 
the subject of the strangers, of whom the Jews might take usu- 
ry, and of whom they might not take usury — Respecting who 
the strangers were, who they should not enslave, or use as bond- 
men — A seeming contradiction in the law on this subject recon- 
ciled — Perpetual slaves to be bought of the Negro heathen of old 
Canaan, as directed by the law — Strictures on Abolitionist opin- 
ions, respecting the meaning of the law relative to servants — Char- 
acter of Noah and Lot rescued from abolitionist aspersions — Stric- 
tures on the opinions of abolitionists, respecting the word buy, as 
applied to the purchase of bondmen, in the law of Moses, with 
other matters of their setting forth — Difference between the con- 
dition of Hebrew servants and their Canaanite slaves, with respect 
to the jubilees, and other matters — Proofs tliat the Hebrews bought 
and sold Negro slaves under the sanction of the law; even going 
to Africa for that purpose — Enslaving of the persons of the Amal- 
ekites under the eye of Moses — Slaves of the patriarchs bought 
with money — A curious query of abolitionists answered, with 
majiy other matters. 

As remarked at the close of the foregoing section, 
it will be our endeavor in the following to ascertain 
whether, in the law of Moses, the judicial act of 
God against the race of Ham, as announced by Noah, 
was indorsed, and acted upon accordingly, by the 
Hebrews. 

To do ihis, it will not be necessary to prove, in this 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 107 

section, that the inhabitants of Canaan, whom the 
Jews were to destroy, were of the genealogy of Ham, 
including the whole seven nations of that country, 
and were the direct descendants of this man through 
Canaan, a son of his, as all this has been done in 
the fourth section of the work, and elsewhere. 

On this account, our labor is therefore straight be- 
fore us, namely, to ascertain whether, in the law of 
Moses, the curse of Noah against Ham and his people, 
is actually recognized, indorsed, and acted upon as 
judicial, in relation to their enslavement, in the strict 
and literal sense of the word. 

In a certain chapter of the book of Leviticus, name- 
ly, the xxvth, are found sundry directions embodied in 
the law of Sinai, respecting servants of various kinds. 
Here it is found written, that any Hebrew having 
bought, not hired, a Hebrew servant, should 7iot be 
oppressed, or ruled over with rigor, as they would rule 
over or oppress a bondman, 7iot derived from the He- 
brew stock. 

From the 35th to the 46th verse inclusive, of the 
above named chapter, it is written as follows, except 
the words included in brackets, which are inserted 
to carry out, and to distinguish the true meaning, and 
to prevent confusion : 

"And if thy brother [aHebrerc, 07ie of the twelve 
tribes] be waxen poor, and fall into decay with thee 
[or in thy midst], then thou shalt relieve him, yea, 
though he be a stranger [far from his own tribe], or 
a sojourner [one who had come from another tribe\, 
that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of 
him, or increase, but fear thy God [in this thing], 



108 



ORIGIN. CHARACTER, AND 



that thy brother [a Hehreiv. or of the Hebrew blood, 
not a nc2;ro^ may live with thee. Thou slialt not 
give him [that is, a Hebrew brother, one of the tribes\ 
thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for 
increase. And if thy brother \iiot a Hamite\ that 
dwelleth by thee, be waxen poor, and he be sold unto 
thee \on any account], thou shalt not compel him to 
serve as a bond servant : but as a hired servant, and 
as a [Hebrew brother, one of the tribes'] sojourner, he 
shall be with thee, and serve thee unto the year of 
jubilee ; and then shall he depart from thee [that is, 
if he desire to do so], both he and his children [if he 
has any] with him, and shall return unto his own 
family [or tribe], and inito the possession of his fath- 
ers shall he return; for they are my servants, which 
1 brought out of the land of Egypt : they shall not 
be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over 
him [or such an one] with rigor [as you may over a 
hand slave], but shalt fear thy God [in this jmrticu- 
lar]." 

From the above, it is clear that by the term crotii- 
ER, no other character is specified as being entitled 
to the above named privileges, as paupers, of whom 
no usury was to be taken for money or victuals, but 
a regular Hebrew, or one of the twelve tribes. This 
is made clear by the qualifying words of the account, 
which says, ^^for they arc my servants, which I 
hrouglit out of the land of Egypt.^^ Now God 
brought no Canaanitcs or negroes out of Egypt, 
they were wholly of the twelve tribes of the He- 
brews. 

Thus we see that Moses marked out in the law the 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE 100 

difference there was between hand servants, hired 
servants, and servants of the Hebrew tribes^ who 
might be sold, on account of their poverty. 

But in the law there are other strangers alluded to, 
who were neither of any of the twelve tribes, nor of 
the Canaanite race, of whom the Hebrews mi^ht 
take usury of money or victuals (Deut. xxiii, 20), but 
could not legally make bond men of them. 

These were the race of Shem, and not of the twelve 
tribe community, who were dwelling in the surround- 
ing countries. Of such there were many in tlie time of 
Moses, as well as during the whole existence of the Jew- 
ish people, as a kingdomor government, who, in the law, 
are never called heathen, as were all the negro race. 

There were the descendants of Lot, Abraham's 
half brother. There were the children of Katura^ 
born to Abraham long before the birth of Isaac, who, 
when they were grown up and married, were sent 
eastward with their inheritances. See Gen. xxv, from 
the 1st to the 6th verse inclusive. By this first mar- 
riage, Abraham had no less than six sons, who, ac- 
cording to the history of them given in the above 
trait in the Book of Genesis, were the fathers of mul- 
titudes, all of whom settled eastward of Chalden, and 
took place before God commanded Abraham to leave 
his father's house in Haran in old Chaldea, east of 
the river Euphrates, in order to go to the country of 
Canaan, far to the south-west. We come to this con- 
clusion, respecting Abraham, from the 7iecessity of 
the case, for Abraham was, at the death of Sarah, one 
hundred and thirty-seven years old, as he was ten 
years older than his wife, who died at the age of one 



no 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



hundred and twenty-seven. Gen. xxiii, 1. Of neces- 
sity, therefore Abraham's wife Katiira was his first 
wife, who he had married in his youth, and was dead 
when he took Sarah, and came to Canaan, on which 
account his great age, that of one hundred and thir- 
ty-seven years, he could not have been the father of 
the above named six sons after the death of Sarah, 
as the order of the history in Genesis xxv seems to in- 
timate, which is a mistake of the Hebrew copyists, and 
compilers of the ancient Scriptures. 

Then there was Ishmael, the son of Hagar, the 
Egyptian bond servant of Sarah, born to Abraham, 
of whom came many nations now known, as in an- 
cient times, as Arabs or Ishmaelites. These were 
also the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob, 
who were known as the Idtijneans. There were the 
descendants of Labaji, the Syrian, a near relation of 
Abraham, all of whom, together with those above 
named, amounted to millions in the time of the giv- 
ing of the law, and during the nationality of the 
Jews, who were the strangers alluded to, of whom 
the Hebrews might take usury, or interest, for lent 
victuals or lent money, as it is specifically stated in 
Deut. xxiii, 20, but not of their brethren, which ap- 
pellation brother always meant a member of the great 
confederacy of the twelve tribes, and nobody else. 
That this was the case respecting the term strangers, 
we have the favoring opinion of Adam Clarke, in his 
remarks on the 2 Chron. xv, 9. The text reads as 
follows : " And he (Asa) gathered all Judah and Ben- 
jamin, and the strangers with them out of Ujjhraim, 
Manassah and Simeon.''^ 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. Ill 

From this it is clear that members of the twelve 
tribes were called strajigers, if dwelling at a distance 
from Judea, or the capital, who were not to be charg- 
ed with usury on any account, while other strangers 
should be. Of their brethren, therefore, they could 
not take usury, but of all strangers they might, wheth- 
er black, white or red. 

But of no stranger did the law of Moses allow 
bond men or bond maids to be made, except of the 
negro or Hamite race, for to that people alone did the 
curse of servitude refer, which fact was as well 
known to Moses as to God, and all the Hebrew tribes, 
as well as to the people of Ham themselves, with all 
other nations. 

That the law of Moses did not allow of any 
stranger being oppressed in the matter of slavery, 
who were not of the race of Ham, is shown, Exodus 
xxii, 21, where it is written, "thou shalt neither vex 
a stranger nor oppress him : for ye were strangers in 
the land of Egypt." And yet for the very purpose 
of oppressing and vexing the negro Canaanites, the 
Jews were sent into the land of Canaan, by which it 
is most evident, that the term stranger in the law 
did not apply to that people, the Canaanites, in the 
palliative or merciful sense. 

But how is this? says one ; ihe text just now quo- 
ted out of Exodus xxii, 21, straightly says, that no 
stranger should be oppressed nor vexed, and yet, from 
Levit. XXV, 45, it appears that strangers might be 
sold and bought for slaves or bondmen; is not this a 
plain contradiction, one text forbidding the oppression 
of a stranger? and another allowing it, and both pas- 



112 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



sages written in the same law, and apparently about 
the same thing. 

The following is the solution, or, as it appears to 
the mind of the writer, there is no solution at all to 
these seemingly contradictory scriptures. 

When Moses in the law, and at the 25th division 
or chapter of the part called Leviticus, had made an 
end of his remarks and directions about various kinds 
of servants, with other matters, introduced a new 
subject (see verse 44), namely, that of unqualified 
slavery, or of bond servants, which he commences as 
follows : " BotlL thy bondmen and thy bondmaids 
which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that 
are round aboiit you ; of them shall ye buy, bond- 
me7i and boJidmaidsP 

In this passage it is clear, that the law of Moses 
'peremptorily directed, that all their perpetual slaves, 
or bond servants, should be procured from among the 
heathen negro race, the very people to whom the curse 
of Noah referred, and are always referred to as hea- 
thens, whether Canaanites, Egyptians, Lybians or 
Ethiopians, all of whom are referred to as heathen, 
in the most emphatic sense of the word, in the law. 

The terms gentile and heathen, as used in the 
Scriptures, seeyns always to be of synonymous import; 
but in the law of Moses it would appear that the 
word heathen designated solely the people of Canaan, 
and the other branches of the negro race. The term 
gentile is not found in any of the books of the law 
of Moses, properly so called ; for the book of Genesis 
is not to be numbered as any part of the law or code 
of that legislator. The law does not properly com- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



113 



mence until the book of Exodus, and runs through the 
remaining /our, commonly called the books of Moses. 

On account of the absence of the word or term 
gentile, in the books of the law, jjroperbj so called 
(for the book of Genesis is but a narrative or history 
of the first ages of the earth, and no part of the law\ 
we conchide that the word heathen, as used in the 
law by Moses, referred solely to the Canaanites, and 
to their race, the blacks or negroes in general. We 
are the more confirmed in this opinion, because Mo- 
ses himself calls the people of Japheth, who were 
white men, gentiles. See Genesis x, 5. 

In that chapter, namely, the 10th, Moses has given 
an account of three races of men, the sons of Noah, 
and what they were called as nations. In this ac- 
count, which is the eldest of all history, at the 5th 
verse of the chapter above named, the descendants 
of Japheth are called gentiles, in distinction from 
the other two races, those of iShetJi and Ham. 

In after ages, however, the terms gentile and hea- 
then seem to have become synonymous, as referring 
to all the people of the globe, except the Jews. But 
in the law the word gentile does not occur. The 
word Iteathen, therefore, as used by Moses, referred 
exclusively at that time to the negro race, and to 7io 
other people: this opinion cannot be refuted. 

The term heathen therefore as used in the law,re- 
ferred entirely to the race of Ham, who had been judi- 
cially condemned to a conditionof servitude, more than 
eight hundred years before the giving of the law, by 
the mouth of Noah, the medium of the Holy Ghost, 

Tlie law was given from Mount &'inai, which was 
5* 



114 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

southward from Canaan. Now Moses said in (he 
law, that when they (the Jews), should come into that 
country, that of the heatheji round about them, they 
should make bondmen, or slaves of the people in 
those regions ; and as there were no other people in- 
habiting old Canaan but the negroes of the race of 
Ham, it is certain that by the term heathen, no other 
people were alluded to. 

In the time of St. Paul, the term gentile (as in 
the days of Noah, see Gen. x, 5) referred to the na- 
tions of the white race ; as it is written by that apos- 
tle, in several of his letters to the churches, that he 
was the apostle of the gentiles. Can it be shown 
that Paul ever preached to a negro people at all? If 
not, then it follows that the word gentile, still refer- 
red to white men, in his time, as to Greeks, Romans, 
Gauls, Italians, Spaniards, and other nations of the 
north, but never to the negro race. 

The strangers, therefore, to whom Moses alluded 
in Levit. xxv, 45, were the people of Ham, in all 
countries, whether Canaan, E^ypt, Ethiopia, Lybia, 
or any other country or place inhabited by negroes. 

This distinction is made still more clear by St. Luke 
xxi, 24, where the poiver which was finally to de- 
stroy Jerusalem, is called " the gentiles,^' who, it is well 
known, were the Romans, an empire of white men. 
This is further proven from the statement of that 
apostle, in Acts xxviii, 28, who, while at Rome, was a 
prisoner. In that passage it is said that as the Jews 
rejected the gospel, that he should turn to the gen- 
tiles, and that they would receive it. Paul was then 
in the very heart of the Roman or gentile states, 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 115 

and, therefore, of necessity, proves that the term sig- 
nified no other race, but that of the whites. 

This verse, therefore, the 45th, of the 25th of Le- 
viticus, 7mist be considered as the context or g-uide, 
in relation to the word stranger on this subject ; con- 
sequently, in verse the 46th, the one which follows 
the text above quoted, is qualified by the first. It 
so, then the word stranger, there used, refers not to 
any of the Shemite or Japhethic races, but only to 
the heathen race of Ham. 

With this view, all is made right, the stranger of 
Exodus xxii, 21, signifying all people not of the ne- 
gro race; while the stranger of Leviticus xxv, 4,5, 
refers to all negroes, or people of Ham, though not 
strictly Canaanites. as, doubtless, there were among 
the Canaanites always, more or less, people, families, 
and even whole tribes, of the other families of Ham's 
lineage, such as Egyptians, Lybians and Ethiopians, 
who might properly be denominated strangers in 
Canaan, or heathens of those descents from other 
countries than those of Canaan. Thus we have re- 
conciled the two contradicting passages, as we be- 
lieve, in the estimation of all candid men. 

Having thus cleared up a difficulty in the law of 
Moses, which has misled many a fierce abolition 
writer, and probably others, we pass to the main sub- 
ject, that of ascertaining whether the law of Moses 
did indorse and inculcate the doctrine of the curse 
of Noah upon the children of Ham, which we affirm 
was the fact. The proof of this is direct and unequiv- 
ocal, furnished from the law of that great legislator 
of the Jews, Moses, who was the immediate agent 



116 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

of Jehovah hmiself to that people. See Levit. xxv, 
from the 44th to the 46th verse inclusive, which reads 
as follows : 

" Both thy bond men and thy bond maids which 
thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round 
about ; of them shall ye buy [not /are] bond men and 
bond maids. Moreover, of the children of the stran- 
gers [that is, the children of negroes, foreign to Ca- 
naan, who might be dwelling among the Canaanites], 
that do [or may] sojourn with you, of them shall ye 
buy [children], and of their families that are with 
you, which they beget [or might beget] in your land 
[Canaan, after the Jews should possess it], and they 
shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as 
an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit 
them as a possession : they shall be your bond men 
forever I " 

Was this buying the children of the heathen Ca- 
naanites, and using them as bond men and bond 
maids, or, in other words, as slaves, nothing, after all, 
but a privilege granted by Moses to the Hebrews of 
hiring them — as is pretended by abolitionists, in or- 
der to get rid of the force of those passages of the law 
in support of the enslaving the negro race ? 

But men as wise as any of these, even Clarke 
and Benson, in their renowned commentaries of the 
Scriptures, have not gainsaid their meaning in this 
particular: these champions of knowledge, though 
English abolitionist, pass entirely over those extraor- 
dinary passages without one solitary remark. This 
strange omission is, in our opinion, as much as if they 
had said that the fact of the indorsement of the law 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 117 

of Moses upon the curse of Noah, in relation to the 
people of Ham, is here incontrovertibly made out, on 
which account, they were not bold enough, though 
abolitionists, to contradict that decision of heaven. 

How is it that Adam Clarke, who was the most 
learned man in Christendom, and a man who has 
criticised, wisely and profoundly, on almost every 
verse of the Holy Scriptures, and particularly on those 
involving the most difficult subjects, should have thus 
passed silently over this remarkable trait in the book 
of the law? Had he considered that portion of the 
holy text above his comprehension, or beyond the 
reach of human understanding, and as containing 
matter too obscure for the lights of science and criti- 
cism to penetrate, he would have said as much; but 
this he has not done. 

Other commentators, however, have not thus with- 
held their opinions on these passages, although the 
doctrine contained in them is exceedingly repulsive 
to the minds of many. Among such as have ven- 
tured an opinion is Dr. John Gill, a Baptist common 
tator on the Holy Scriptures, of great learning, who 
wrote before the times of abolitionism. This divine 
has boldly asserted, as every unprejudiced reader 
would do, that the Hebrews, in those three famous 
verses of the law, were allowed to have real bond 
men, or slaves. The following are his words on the 
46th verse of the 25th chapter of Leviticus, which 
reads: "And ye shall take them as an inheritance 
for yom- children after you." Such servants '-'they 
might leave at their death to be inherited, as they 
did their estates and lands: for such servants are 



US 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



(says Gill) esteemed by the Jews to be like immovc' 
able property, as fields, vineyards, &.C., to inherit 
them for a possession as their property, like any thing 
else that was bequeathed to them, as negroes now 
are in our plantations abroad : they were to be their 
bond men for ever, and not to be released at the year 
of Jubilee." 

The above is a true comment; for in every age 
the Jews, as well as the more ancient Hebrews, their 
ancestors, have reckoned their bond slaves as prop- 
erty ; and thus every commentator, in every age and 
language, upon the Holy Scriptures, have determined, 
except of late, as in the persons of all abolitionists. 

Respecting the opinions and speculations of some 
of these men, who are the leaders of the party, and 
agitators of the subject of negro emancipation in 
America, we give the following as their views of the 
meaning of the law of Moses, as it regards bond 
slaves. 

See a series of pamphlets, entitled "The Bible 
against Slavery," 1838. This writer dashes boldly 
into the matter, and at once settles the subject for 
ever. Of this work, see a note, page 9, 4th edition, 
which reads as follows : " The Bible record of actions 
is no comment on their moral character. It vouches 
for them as mere facts, not as virtues. It records 
without rebuke, Noah's drunkenness, Lot's incest, 
and the lies of Jacob and his mother, not only single 
acts, but usao^eSy such as polygamy and concubinage ; 
all these are entered on the divine record luithout 
censure. Is that silerit entry God's indorsement? 
Because the Bible, in its catalogue of human actions, 



FORTUNES, OF TUE NEGRO RACE. 119 

does not stamp on every crime its name and 7iumbcr, 
and write— ^/ii5 is a crime, does that wash out its 
guilt and bleach it into a virtue?" 

The writer of the note above alluded to is combat- 
ing the belief which has always been entertained from 
the reading of the passages in the 25th of Leviticus, 
as above quoted, that the Hebrews might, if they 
would, enslave the people of old Canaan, and endeav- 
ors to give them another meaning. He informs the 
reader, in that note, that the statements of Moses, on 
the subject of slavery, as they related to the race of 
Ham, were nothing but a record of crimes, written 
against his countrymen for thus enslaving the Canaan- 
ites — and this is the opinion of all abolitionists. 

He allows, it is true, that Moses did not blame the 
Hebrews for enslaving the Canaanites and the stran- 
gers of the Hamite race dwelling among them, but 
that he made an e?itr9/ in the book of the law of that 
dreadful sin ; but that entry was 7iot an approval — it 
was a record only of the crime. 

The above is a most singular opinion, and has as 
much of the dust of sophistry in its composition as 
any written remarks we have ever met with. To 
perceive this, we have only to recollect that when 
that permissive trait of the law of Moses was given, 
was more than forty years before the Jews got pos- 
session of the country of Canaan ; how, therefore, 
could the remarks of Moses, which are found in Lev. 
XXV, 44 — 46, be a record of the crime of slavery, 
when the thing alluded to, prospectively, had not as 
yet been done by forty years or more. After the 
giving of the law from Mount Sinai, it was more than 



120 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

forty years before the Hebrews, under the conduct of 
Joshua, went through the river Jordan into the prom- 
ised land. 

Those famous passages, therefore, are not a record 
of what had been done ah-eady, but of what might 
be done when they should come to possess the coun- 
try of old Canaan ; avoid this conclusion he that can. 

But further, we shall show the marks of a reckless 
hand, as detailed in the pamphlet above alluded to, 
where the Scriptures are shown up, as aifording no 
reproof for certain wicked actions of certain wicked 
men, as held by abolitionists, such as Noah in his 
drunkenness. Lot in his incest, and the lies of Jacob 
and his mother, as well as the polygamy of the pa- 
triarchs ; all of which are entered as a mere record 
without censure, says this writer. 

But such is not the fact; for the Scriptures say 
that no drunkard can inherit the kingdom of heaven, 
1 Cor, vi, 9, 10, nor incestuous person or fornicator. 
In Deut. xxi, 20, it is said, that if a son was a * * * * 
drunkard, he should be stoned to death. This is a 
reproof of those crimes with a vengeance. 

We could multiply, even from the Old Testament, 
reproofs for sins of the kinds above named. 

As to 2^oli/gami/, the Scriptures do no where say 
that a man might have more than one wife, neither 
m ^he Old nor the New Testament. By the Savior, 
it is strictly or impliedly forbidden, Matt, xix, 5 — 8; 
and was it not the Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave the 
law from Sinai to Moses and the Jews? Is it likely, 
therefore, that Christ in the law would allow polyg- 
amy by a direct precept, when he has said, in the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



121 



verses above quoted, that from the beginning it was 
not so? 

It is true, however, that Moses, in the law, did 
suppose (Deut. xxi, 15) the case of a man having two 
wives, and has there prescribed certain regulations 
respecting the children of such wives, but does not, 
in so many words, any where say that his people 
might liave more wives than one at a time, nor had 
Moses himself ever but one wife. It is true, also, 
that he gave a power to the Jews to put away a wife 
by divorce, who did not please them ; but even this al- 
lowance was done out of mercy to the woman ; for on 
this very subject Jesus Christ said that Moses allowed 
it to be done on account of the hardness of their 
hearts, or cruelty to their wives : but from the begin- 
ning it was not true that a man might have a plu- 
rahty of wives. On this subject, the Savior founds 
his argument against polygamy, namely, that God, 
or himself, who was God, in the beginning made them 
male and female, and married them to each other, 
adding, that as God had put them together by mar- 
riage, that no man could, legally or morally, put them 
asunder, except for but one cause only. Are we, 
therefore, to imagine that the author of both codes of 
law, the Gospel and the Pentateuch, would thus con- 
tradict his own eternal views of morality? Accord- 
ingly, there is found no such admission in the law 
of Moses, but exactly the contrary. 

It is true, however, that polygamy was practiced 
to a great extent during all the ages of the Jewish 
history; but the writer of these pages is not prepared 
to say that the laio of God allowed it, or that the 



122 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

Scriptures, even of the Old Testament, have not re- 
proved it, but otherwise ; for it is written by Nehe- 
miah, xiii, 26, that Solomon, who had many wives, 
sinned against God and his own soul by doing so. 
This passage we consider a direct censure of the 
practice, as well as the remarks of the Savior, in 
Matt, xix, 5, who said that it was not so from the 
beginning, and, consequently, could not have been 
allowed in the old law. See Deut. xvii, 17, where it 
is written, that when the people of the Hebrews should 
come to possess the country of Canaan, and they 
should desire a king, one from among their brethren 
of the twelve tribes, he was not to multiply wives. 
Two is a multiplication of one. More wives than 
owe, therefore, was forbidden by the law of Moses, 
and although that good trait of the law was never so 
much violated in that respect by all the Jews under 
heaven in those ages, yet this does not make it out 
that the Scriptures allowed polygamy, or did not re- 
prove the practice as a sin. 

But the author of the note above alluded to ap- 
pears willing to have it pass that the Scriptures do 
not reprove sin, especially in the Old Testament, 
even though the sins were dnailcenness^ polygamy, 
incest and lyings but merely speaks of them as a 
simple entry or record of such deeds and acts. This 
mighty stretch of opinion is introduced in order that 
the reader may be led to believe that \f hen Moses, 
in the law, has said that the Hebrews should buy 
their bond men of the heathen, has only made a re- 
cord of that great crime in this particular. To carry 
out and to impress this belief, the author of that 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE, 123 

series of pamphlets and of the note in question, does 
not hesitate to call Noah a drunkard, and Lot an 
incestuous person — two men, among^ye, of the most 
holy named on the pages of the divine oracles. 

But as it relates to these two men, Noah and Lot, 
we maintain that they were not sinners in thealledged 
transactions. Noah, as we have said before, was an 
aged man, being over six hundred years old when he 
drank the wine spoken of by Moses, Gen. ix, 21 ; its 
effects, therefore, were undoubtedly wholly unfore- 
seen by him, as by that time the iron nerves of his 
youth and maturer years were beginning to be re- 
duced by weakness and the disabilities of age. A 
very little wine, therefore, might have disposed him 
to sleep, a condition far enough from a debauch, or 
an intended wreckless inebriation : if so, then he was 
no sinner in that affair, nor does the Scriptures inti- 
mate any such thing. 

Had Noah been wickedly intoxicated, is it likely 
that the Holy Ghost would have communed with and 
inspired him, respecting the fortunes of mankind, 
who were to descend from his three sons, whose every 
word, on that occasion, Heaven had seen fit to fulfill? 
Never. 

Neither was Lot a sinner, in the affair of his 
daughters ; for the Scriptures plainly state (Gen. xix, 
33-35), that when his daughters appoached him in 
an improper way, he perceived it not, when they lay 
down with him, nor when they arose. There was 
no sin, therefore, in that transaction, on the part of 
Lot, as his mind did not consent to the deed, nor his 
perceptions take cognizance of the act. As to his 



124 ORIGIN, CHARACTEK, AND 

drinking too much on that occasion, there can be no 
doubt but his daughters contrived some way to de- 
ceive him, by mixing wine with his food, or drink of 
water, till he became senseless. 

As to the case of Jacob, in the matter of his lying 
to his father, when he said that he was the man Esau, 
this was far enough from being a good act, but was 
actually a wicked one. 

But was not this sin reproved during the night, in 
which he slept on the mountain, at which time he was 
converted to God by the operation of the Holy Ghost, 
when he had the dream of the celestial ladder, and 
when he awoke and said: "Gorf is in this -place, and 
I knew it not.''' Gen. xxviii, 16. 

Surely, this account is something more than a 
mere silent entry of the sin of lying, as it is a tacit 
record at least of the reproof, for how could it be 
pardoned except reproved and repented of? And be- 
sides, do not the Divine oracles every where reprove 
all liars, and in the New Testament threaten them 
with hell fire? 

Thus briefly have we endeavored to rescue the 
character of the Bible, and the characters of i\YO 
good and holy men, Noah and Lot, from the asper- 
sions of a lawless pen — which pen, for no other pur- 
pose in the world, than by any means to get it to be 
believed that Moses did not, in the law, allow of di- 
rect slavery, has been willing thus to write, and to 
mystify the minds of readers, attempting to show 
mat Moses, in all that he has said on the subject of 
slavery, has merely made a record of the crime, with- 
out reproof; though, as it happened, the crime was 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



125 



not perpetrated till some forty years or more after the 
record was made, as above remarked. 

But we pass from this to another particular opin- 
ion of the author of "The Bible against Slavery." 
See No. 6 of this series of pamphlets, year 1838, p. 
17, and onward to the end of the chapter, where the 
word BUY, as used by Moses, in relation to the He- 
brews making slaves of the Canaanites by purchase, 
is shown by that writer, according to his mode of 
reasoning, to mean, after all, nothing but to hire, in- 
stead of buy. Vast pains are taken by the writer of 
that work to show that because the word buy is 
sometimes used in the Scripture phraseology in ap- 
plication to some things which could not be sold, as 
v/isdom, (fcc, that therefore, the word bui/, as used 
by Moses, when he said the Hebrews might buy the 
children of the heathen negroes for slaves, did not 
mean jna-chase, but rather signified a reciprocal con- 
tract, entered into between the parents of such chil- 
dren and adult persons thus bought, and was, there- 
fore, but a conditional bargain after all, which, if not 
fulfilled on the part of the buyer, rendered the bar- 
gain 7iuU and void. 

Could this position be fairly sustained, the fact of 
real slavery, as supposed to have been practiced 
among the Hebrews, by the authority of their law, 
would cease to exist; but thus Moses does not state 
the case. In relation to bondmen, there was 7io con- 
dition, except that if a master should in anger smite 
out a tooth or an eye of his servant, then he might go 
free for his tooth or his eye's sake, but there was no 
other condition by which he could go free, in the eye 



126 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



of that law, or be absolved from the condition of a 
slave or legal property. 

If they were but once bought, they became per- 
petual slaves, to be inherited by the heirs of those 
who bought them, and of necessity liable to be sold 
again, whenever the owner should please to do so. 
This is the full, complete and unambiguous meaning 
of the 46th verse of the xxvth of Leviticus, and all 
the ijarallel places in the book of the law. Thus 
reads the passage : ^''And ye shall take them as an 
inheritance for your children after you, to inherit for 
a possession ; they shall he your hondmen forever P^ 

The words inhei'it and possession are hei'e used in 
the same property-sense in no wise differing from 
their use, when spoken in the promise of God to Abra- 
ham, Isaac, Jacob and the Hebrews, respecting the 
possession of the land of Canaan, which was to be 
their real inheritance and possession forever, as soon 
as the time should come when they should enter 
upon it by conquest. This was all in futurity 
when promised, as it respected the land of the Canaan- 
ites ; so also was the promise of the bodies of the 
inhabitants for slaves — one was equally as much a 
promise as was the other — of such as should not be 
slain in the subjugation of the country : there was no 
difference. 

Now, to carry out this notion of the above men- 
tioned pamphlets on the idea of the word buy, or 
possession, being no more than the word hire or con- 
tract, then the promised possession of the country of 
Canaan would, after all, amount to nothing more than 
to »-ent it, while She fee simple would have still re- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 127 

mained in the hands of the Canaanites, who, instead 
of being slaves, and the possession of the Hebrews, 
would in reality have been the lords of the Hebrews. 

The promise of the country of Canaan to the prog- 
eny of Abraham by Isaac, is multipUed in the old 
Scriptures almost without end, in the words inherit- 
ance^ possession, &c. Were those words making 
out those promises used in a delusive or uncertain 
sense, as if the possession of that country by the 
Hebrews, depended on the acquiescence of the Ca- 
naanites ; but if not, tlien are the same words as used 
by Moses in the law, giving the persons of the Ca- 
naanites to be an inheritance and 3>. -possession oi the 
same force and meaning that they are when used in 
relation to the land, notwithstanding the dodging of 
abolition writers about the words buy and sell. 

If the sense of this word, buy, in its most ordinary 
meaning, is turned aside in its application to the case 
in hand, then in a moment a multitude of tlie Scrip- 
ture history of transactions between buyers and sel- 
lers, are rendered uncertain and doubtful. To give 
a few cases in prosecution of the idea, as follows: 

The sons of Jacob went to Egypt to buy corn for 
their families — Gen, xlii, 2, Jacob bought a field of 
the Shechemites, in the land of Canaan, long before 
the time of Moses, for a hundred pieces of money — 
Gen. xxxiii, 18, 19. There also was the case of Jo- 
seph, who was sold to the Ishmaelites, for twenty 
pieces of silver — Gen. xxxvii, 28 ; who was again 
sold to Potiphar, in Egypt — Gen. xxxix, 1. 

In process of time, this Joseph bought all the land 
of Egypt, from the Egyptians, for the king, on ac- 



128 ORIGIN^, CHARACTER, AND 

count of the famine — Gen. xlvii, 20. In all these 
cases the usual terms of huy and sell as commonly 
applied in traffic, are resorted to, although one of 
these cases was the sale of the body and person of a 
man, namely, Joseph, or the thing bought, the same 
as any other goods or chattels. 

During this famine, Joseph not only bought all the 
land of Egypt, but he also bought the Egyptians 
themselves, men, women and children, for corn. 

Respecting the case of the Egyptians, we will give 
the whole account, that the reader may judge wheth- 
er Joseph did actually buy the Egyptians as a man 
would buy any thing else. See Gen. xlvii, from the 
15th to the 26th verse inclusive. 

And when money failed in all the land of Egypt, 
all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said: give us 
corn, for why should we die in thy presence, for the 
money faileth. And Joseph said, give your cattle, 
and I will give you food for your cattle if money 
fail [was not this a goods and chattels bargain?]. 
And they brought their cattle unto Joseph, and Jo- 
seph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and 
for flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the 
asses — and he bought with bread all the cattle that 
year. 

But to this account, Josephus adds, that with the 
cattle Joseph bought all their slaves. From this fact, 
it appears that the Egyptians had slaves, and that 
they sold them to Joseph, who did not refuse to buy 
them, which, had it been a sin to do so, as abolition- 
ists contend, he would not have done it, famine or no 
famine. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



129 



But the story is not yet finished : for when the 
year was at an end, and their bread was gone, for 
which they had given their cattle and slaves, they 
came unto Joseph and said, " We will not hide it, 
how that our money is spent, also thou hast our herds 
of cattle ; there is not aught left in the sight of our 
lord but our bodies and our lands. Wherefore shall 
we die before thine eyes, both we and our lands; buy 
us and our land for bread, and we and our land will 
be servants [slaves] unto Pharaoh. And Joseph 
bought all the land of Eg}'pt, for the Egyptians sold 
every man his field, because the famine prevailed 
over them, so that the land became Pharaoh's ; and 
as for the people, he removed them to cities, from one 
end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end 
thereof," having a right to do this in virtue of his 
jnirchase of their bodies. 

Surely this was a bo7ia fide contract, equally so 
with any other bargain, where the money is paid for 
the thing bought. And why should not this have 
been so, as there is no doubt but the king's money, 
during the seven years of plenty, had bought, by the 
management of Joseph, all the grain the Eg^'ptians 
had to spare, which he laid up in the granaries of the 
country. 

This grain, therefore, was the property of the king, 
and it could not be parted with without an equiva- 
lent, and that equivalent was had in money, cattle^ 
slaves, land, and finally the bodies of the Egyptians 
themselves, by which means they became even the 
slaves of Pharaoh. 

But out of that condition, the generosity of their 



130 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

king, at the suggestion of his chief minister, Joseph 
the Hebrew, dehvered them by making them an of- 
fer. This offer was, that tliey should receive seed at 
his hand, and should sow the land with that seed, 
and should forever thereafter give to Pharaoh one- 
fifth of the increase as the price of their redemption. 
That this was a generous offer, and one which they 
might think themselves happy to have made to them, 
is shown from the remarks of Joseph on the occasion, 
which were as follows — Gen. xlvii, 23, " Then Jo- 
seph said unto the people, behold I have bought you 
this day, and your land for Pharaoh : lo ! here is seed, 
and ye shall sow the land. And it shall come to 
pass, in the increase, that you shall give ihe. fifth un- 
to Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own for the 
seed of the field, and for your food, and for your 
household, and for food for your little ones." 

Was this a reciprocal agreement between Pharaoh 
and the people ? — never. It was a case of the most 
perfect dictation on the part of the ow7ier of the peo- 
ple, in which, for a return of the money that had 
been laid out for grain during the seven years' fam- 
ine, Pharaoh said I idUI have one-fifth of the increase 
of the land for ever (which in all time before was 
not the case) as an equivalent for my money and its 
interest. 

But what said the Egyptians to this mandate 7 
Did they higgle at it, as men will do in making bar- 
gains, when the parties are independent of each other? 
No^ they did not, as there was no alternative ; but 
replied, as the most abject suppliants, "77iou hast 
saved our lives; let us find grace in the sight of our 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 131 

lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants." Here the 
people were set free from absolute slavery, and exalt- 
ed to the character of vassals, or renters of the land, 
which was not their condition prior to the famine — 
the revenues of the government having been collected 
in some other way. 

If it were a true solution of the matter that the 
word bill/ signified, in ancient times, and in the He- 
brew language, the law of Moses, &.C., no more than 
to hi)^e, excluding a third person in such a transac- 
tion, thoi it would follow that the cor7i which the 
sons of Jacob bought in Egypt was only hired; the 
parcel of land bought by Jacob of the Shechemites, 
for a certain price in silver, was onlj'- hired; the cave 
bought by Abraham of the children of Heth for a 
place of burial, for so much money by weight, was 
only hired; when Joseph was sold by his brethren 
to the Midianites, who bought him for twenty pieces 
of silver, it was nothing, after all, but hiring him out 
to those merchants. 

Were this the true sense of the Scriptural word 
buy, then, indeed, as the abolitionists contend in their 
writings, all the bondmen of the negro race of old 
Canaan were but so many hired men and hired maids 
to the Hebrews. As to the word buy, in all lan- 
guages, no matter how it is spoken, or how it sounds, 
the true and highest meaning of the word signifies 
to jmrchase any thing human beings traffic in. 
No matter what the article is, as the power of cus- 
tom is able to make any thing an article of trade 
which is tangible — a human being, an ox, or a piece 
of land. After this, its first, highest and radical 



132 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

meaning, there are a number of other matters to 
which the word buy can be apphed, and are called 
its accommodated^ or secondary uses or meanings. 
For instance, a person's education may cost much 
money, and yet, as education is not a tangible thing, 
it cannot he sold; and still it maybe said that educa- 
tion was bought, even with money. But this is not 
strictly and literally true after all, as all the money 
in the world cannot biti/ a man an education ; it is 
to be obtained only by intellectual exertions and in- 
dividual study. In a case like this, therefore, the 
words bni/ and bought are used only in their second 
ary, figurative, or accommodated uses. 

In this way it is said in Scripture, that men should 
buy wisdom and sell it not ; that is, do not make an 
unwise or a foolish use of wisdom, or cast it not 
away. In relation to the means of man's salvation, 
it is said that we are bought with a price, but not 
with money; and yet we are actually bought from 
immediate death, and eternal non-existence, in the 
loins of Adam when he fell, by the blood of the prom- 
ised Messiah, prospectively shed for the race of man 
before the world was made; or Vv^e should never 
have had any existence at all, Adam and Eve alone 
excepted. 

The practice of the Jews, in paying to the priest- 
hood of their worship redemption money for their 
souls (see Numbers xviii, 15, and iii, 45, 51), was in 
some sense, no doubt, a typical thing — alluding to 
the need every man has of a Redeemer's blood to 
save his soul, and was also given in support of the 
worsh'p of the altar, where Jehovah was adored. 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 133 

Now, what though money was paid in this and the 
other cases, as mentioned above, yet there was no 
transaction of the trafficking character, as is the fact 
when men buy and sell articles of tangible natures, 
the words huy^ bought and sell being used here only 
in their secondary, accommodated or emblematical 
senses, and applied to moral or abstract subjects, and 
not to things tangible. 

According to the law of Moses, just referred to, the 
first born of all the Hebrews was to be redeemed with 
money, which went to support the priesthood. Out 
of this fact, or from this fact, abolitionists, in their 
writings, will have it, that if the word buy, as used 
in Leviticus, 25th chapter, related to the ^purchase 
of bondmen from among the heathen Canaanites, by 
which they became property, that it ought to have 
the same meaning in the case of the redemption of 
the first born among the Hebrews, because they were 
redeemed with money, and were, therefore, as much 
bought as were the bondmen alluded to in Leviticus, 
and, of necessity, were equally an article of property. 

But all this reasoning of theirs is but nonsense, of 
the poorest description — a mere shufiliug of mixed up 
and confused ideas. This is apparent when we 
come to know who it was that were required thus to 
redeem the first born children at the hand of the 
priest. It was the parents who were required to do 
this, who could not, and did not thereby inciease 
their right to their own children ; neither could the 
priest seize and sell such children as were not thus 
redeemed; it was a sin of omission, to be punished 
by the Divine hand, and not by man, if the money 



134 1RTGIN, CHARACTER, -4ND 

was not paid at the altar, for their soids^ typical re- 
demption. 

Because the parents were required thus to redeem 
their children, in reference to God and the blood of 
the to be crucified Messiah, who was to come, therein 
acknowledging that they were bought prospectively, 
by the anticipated death of Christ, could in no pos- 
sible way make bought slaves of such children, nor 
increase the natural or moral right the parents had 
to their offspring as Hebrews. Therefore, a parity 
of reasoning, as argued by abolitionists, cannot apply 
to the argument, as it respects the actual purchase 
of slaves, or to the word bui/, as if this word could 
be tortured into the word redeem, as used in relation 
to the first born among the Hebrews. For argu- 
ments of this description, see " The Bible against 
iSlaverT/.'^ No. 6, year,1838. page 18, and onward. 

It is asserted by abolitionists, that between the 
buyer and the person bought, as spoken of, Leviticus 
XXV, whether it related to Hebreio servants, or to bond 
servants, bought of the heathen Canaanites, that there 
rcas a mutual stipulating between the parties — the 
buyer and the person bought. But this is not true; 
as no Hebrew person who was sold for debt, for theft, 
or for any other legal reason, had a word to say on 
the subject, as dictating the sale. For it was the laio 
which sold the man or the woman, and not them- 
selves ; it was the law that did this, as it would sell, 
by the means of an auctioneer, any article of property 
now-a-days at auction; there was no other way to 
sell a delinquent debtor or a criminal. How, there- 
fore, could the delinquent stipulate at all in the matter? 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 135 

There is a case, however, stated in this same chap- 
ter, the 25th of Leviticus, occupying from the 47th to 
the 55th verse inchisive, where it is shown that a 
poor Hebrew might sell himself to his rich neighbor, 
in which, no doubt, there was, of necessity^ and also 
of propriety, a stipulating of terms on the part of the 
man sellinjj himself and. the man who might buy 
him : this case we cannot see differed imy way from 
a man hiring himself out till such time as his wages 
should pay the debt, or to the end of his life, if he 
would, as have many, in all ages. But if by any 
means he could redeem himself, or if his relations 
could redeem him, then they or he might do so, even 
though the time agreed on was not yet expired. 
But what has this case to do, or indeed any case of the 
Hebrew servitude, with the case of Canaanitish htrnd- 
rtienl We answer- — nothing at all, in any possible 
way, so far as the laxD has any thing to say about it. 

In relation to servants of the Hebrew character, in 
the law of Moses, there were many mitigating cir- 
cumstances ; but as to the negro or Canaanite bond- 
man there was none^ as it related to compensation in 
the light of wages, or of promised freedom [except the 
eye and tooih case] : not even the jubilees could reach 
their condition, as their state of servitude was to be 
for ever, from generation to generation — they were to 
be the everlasting possession or property of the He- 
brews, their masters, to be disposed of by xcUl^ by 
sales, by gifts, or in any such way. 

There is, in the law of Moses, a very great distinc- 
tion made between the stranger servant, the bought 
Hebrew servant, the hired Hebrew servant, and the 



136 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

bond servant of the Canaanites, as was proper ; for all 
the other kinds of servants were, in some way, of the 
Hebrew or Abrahamic hneage, descended through 
various channels from the blood of Shem, as before 
shown; who were not to be oppressed as slaves and 
ruled over with rigor, in that particular, as were the 
bond servants of the Canaanitish or negro race. 

But, says one who may be opposed to the views 
of the writer of this book, did not the great jubilee of 
the Jews, which took place every fiftieth year, set all 
slaves free? And does not the law positively refer to 
the case of bondmen of the Canaanitish description, 
who were slaves among the Hebrews? To this we 
answer, that the great jubilee had nothing to do with 
slaves or their liberties, in any way whatever. Our 
reasons for this belief we shall give as soon as we 
have read the law on the subject of the great jubilee 
and its immunities. See Leviticus xxv, 8 — 10, 13, 
as follows : 

"And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years 
unto thee, seven times seven years, and the space of 
seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and 
nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of 
the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh 
montii ; in the day of atonement shall ye make the 
trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye 
shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty^ 
throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants 
thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall 
return every man unto his family. In the year of 
this jubilee, ye shall return every man to his posses- 
sion." 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



13/ 



That this great jubilee did not refer to the case of 
slaves or bond servants, we learn from the fact that 
slaves had no possessions in the country at all ; and 
as the Hebrews, at the time the law was given, were 
instructed, in the very decalogue itself, to destroy 
and dispossess all the Canaanites of their country, 
when they should begin to enter upon it, by war and 
conquest, how, therefore, could the jubilee, in its 
phraseology, have had the least allusion to that peo- 
ple, in their favor? The supposition is wholly un- 
tenable. 

But to the Hebrews, one and all, who should sell 
or lose their family possession of land, the jubilee 
should be their great emancipator and restorer of 
their rights. This, and nothing but this, was the 
liberty proclaimed to all the inhabitants, as reads the 
10th verse above quoted, which is qualified or ex- 
plained in the 13th, and relates only to land, and the 
impoverished Hebrews who were to return '■^ every 
man to his j^ossessionP But the Canaanites, in the 
view of the law, had no possession in the land of 
Canaan at all, nor families in the eyes of the law. 
How, therefore, can it be supposed that the immuni- 
ties of the greater jubilee could reach the case of any 
other race than the Hebrews themselves? Overturn 
this conclusion he that can. 

Thus, as we believe, the passage on which aboli- 
tionists rely so securely for the freedom of Canaanit- 
ish bondmen in the law, every great jubilee, is fairly 
taken out of their hands, and that by absolute logical 
demonstration. In relation to this matter, abolition- 
ists have cast much dust of sophistry into the greal 
6* 



138 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

arcanum of public opinion and belief, arguing and 
contending that the institutions of Moses made no 
difference between the condition of Hebrew servants 
and the negro bond men of the Canaanitish descrip- 
tion ; and have striven to cover the latter with the 
immunities and privileges of the former, as if there 
really was no difference intended in that law. 

The rigor ^ so often alluded to in the law of Moses, 
which might be exercised upon hond servants of the 
Canaanitish or heathen race, but not on servants of 
the Hebrews, we do not understand to have consist- 
ed of personal abuse or torture, either by hunger, 
stripes, mutilations, or imjjroper exposures of life or 
limb ; for the law forbade this, where it is written, 
that if a master knocked out a tooth, or an eye of his 
servant, he should go free on those accounts, as is 
stated in Exodus xxi, 26, 27 ; and yet it is written in 
the same chapter, namely, the xxi, at the 20th and 
22d verses, that "if a man smite his (man) servant, 
or his (maid) servant, with a rod, and he (or she) die 
under his hand, he shall surely be punished. Not- 
withstanding, if he (or she) continue a day or two, he 
shall not be punished, for he was his money. 

From this text, it is almost impossible to deny that 
the law did but little in defense of the personal and 
physical happiness of hond servants among the He- 
brews ; there is no way to avoid this conclusion, as 
the texts to this point, either direct or indirect, are 
numerous. 

But no such treatment is allowed of in the law to- 
ward Hehreio servants, as it is strictly forbidden to 
oppress them, or to rule over them with rigor in any 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RAGE. 139 

way, because they were brethren to their masters, 
and not to be treated as hired men. 

The bondman was unknown in law ; he had no civ- 
il rights, no voice in community — could not be a wit- 
ness in courts of law or religion — could not implead 
the master in cases of abuse or disagreement, but 
was wholly at the will of his owner. But such 
was not the case with the Hebrew servants — as their 
condition of servitude did not disenfranchize them as 
citizens, in any degree whatever, as they were not to 
be oppressed as bond servants might be. This, as 
above, was the rigor which was not, and could not, 
be brought to bear upon any other class of servants 
among the Hebrews, but the Hamite race alone, ac- 
cording to the law of Moses and the curse of Noah. 

, As to any national privilege, of which a bond serv- 
ant might partake among the Hebrews, there was 
but o«e, and this was in the matter of religion. A 
bond servant being circumcised, might eat of the pass- 
over, the sign of the common salvation of man ; but 
in other respects this circumstance did not benefit 
the slaves any more than their embracing Christian- 
ity in the days of the apostles benefited them, as to 
their temporal condition ; upon which we shall treat 
in due time before we close these pages. In relation 
to this point, see Exodus xii, 44, 45, " But every 
man's servant that is bought with money, when thou 
hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof;" that 
is, he might eat of the jiassover, and that was all that 
was in his favor, except rest on the sabbath day, the 
same as the cattle. 

As to the Hebrews traificking in the sale and pur- 



140 ORIGIN, CHARACTERj AND 

chase of slaves, it is contended by abolitionists that 
they did not^ and that no sale of the kind can be 
found in the Scriptures. On this account, therefore, 
they assume that such transactions were abhorrent 
to the genius of the law and religion of Moses. But 
to refute this notion, we have only to refer to Exo- 
dus xxi, 7 — 11, where, in a certain case, which 
the reader can examine for himself, it is said that 
a man who might buy a maid servant of a He- 
brew father, and if she did not please him (the pur- 
chaser), then he might let her be redeemed, to get his 
money again which she had cost him ; but " to sell 
her utito a strange nation he shall have no power J^ 

Now, from the very prohibition itself, we infer that 
the practice of the Hebrews selling the poor of their 
own people to other nations, was in vogue at the 
time of the giving of the law, and even while they 
were yet in Egypt ; but in the new law given from 
Sinai, this was forbidden. If this was not the case, 
would God, by the hand of Moses, have instituted 
laws against practices and abuses, which did not and 
could never exist. Therefore, as God foreknew that 
as soon as the Hebrews should get possession of the 
country of Canaan, they would deal in the purchase 
and sale of the Canaanites, according to the law 
he was then giving them by the hand of Moses, 
he straightly forbade them to indulge in this thing 
toward their brethren, the Hebrews, saying that 
they should not sell each other to a strange nation 
as they might the Canaanites, while he left no 
such mandate on record respecting the people of 
Ham, who were then the aborigines of old Canaan, 



FORTUNES, OP THS NEGRO RACE. 



141 



whither for war and conquest the twelve tribes were 
bound. 

Moses and the tribes were yet in the desert when 
the law was given, which said, on the subject of ser- 
vants, by way of anticipation, that when they should 
I come into the promised land, and should have ser- 
\ vants of their oivn blood, and should deal in selling 
'' them among themselves (as it appears they did from 
Exodus xxi, 7), that they should make a distinction 
between Hebrew servants and servants of the Cana- 
anitish description ; the forme?', they might deal in 
among themselves onli/ in the way the law directed, 
but the latter they might sell to whom they would, 
to strange nations and all : there should, in this re- 
spect, be no prohibition, as there was, and should be, 
in the other — the Hebrew servants. 

The selling of bondmen, by and among the He- 
brews, appears from another clause in the law of Mo- 
ses, and is of similar import with the one just now 
cited ; it prohibited their dealing in slaves or servants 
of their own blood in the same way they might deal 
in slaves of the negro character. See Leviticus xxv, 
42, as follows : " For they (the Hebrews) are my ser- 
vants which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: 
they shall not be sold as bond men," or as absolute 
slaves. 

By this mode of phraseology, what else can be un- 
derstood than that while the Hebrews were forbidden 
to sell their own blood as bondmen out of the coun- 
try, they might, however, buy and sell heathen ne- 
gro men for bond men, and thus traffic in them as an 
article of trade or commerce. Surely the practice is 



143 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

tacitly, if not emphatically, admitted in the clause just 
above quoted out of the law of God. 

But to make the fact still more clear, namely, that 
the Jews did actually deal in slaves of the negro race, 
see the Book of Joel, third chapter, where it is shown 
that because the Tyrians, Zidonians, and people of 
Palesime, who were of the same race with those just 
named, being all Hamites of old Canaan, had abused 
the Hebrews while captives among them at a certain 
time, by ridicule, and by selling their little ones at 
drinking houses for wine, and at houses of ill-fame 
for the purpose of riot and lewdness, that they should 
themselves be sold by the Jews in their turn, as a rec- 
ompense, or as a judgment on their own heads, for 
having done so great a deed of wickedness. 

But, says one, if it was wicked for the people of 
Tyre and Zidonia to sell the little children of the 
Jews, why was it not just as wicked for the Jews to 
sell the Zidonians, and the people of Canaan ? To 
solve this question, you must ask the determining 
councils and judgments of God, which, on this sub' 
ject, are all set down in the great record of his doings 
toward that race of men, namely, the Scriptures, and 
are his judicial acts concerning them. 

The passages in the Book of Joel, above alluded 
to, read as follows : " For, behold in those days, and 
in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity 
of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, 
and will bring them down into the valley of Jehosa- 
phat (or the field of battle), and will plead with them 
there, for my people and my heritage Israel, whom 
they [the Tyrians and Zidonians] have scattered 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACK. 143 

among the nations, and parted my land. And they 
have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy 
for an harlot^ and sold a girl for wine, that they 
might drink. Yea, and what have ye to do with me, 
O Tyie and Zidon, and all the coast of Palestine? 
will ye render me a recompense? and if ye recom- 
pense (yet) swiftly and speedily Avill I return yom- 
recompense upon your own head : because ye have 
taken my silver and my gold, and have carried them 
into your temples, my goodly pleasant things : the 
children also of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem, 
have ye sold unto the Grecians [a great way to the 
west], that ye might remove them far from their 
border. Behold, I will raise them out of the place, 
whither ye have sold them, and will return your rec- 
ompense [or doings] upon your own heads. And I 
will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands 
of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them 
to the iSabea?is, a people far oft"; for the Lord hath 
spoken it." 

Here it is certainly stated that the Jews might, 
and actually should, sell the people of Palestine, who 
were of the race of Ham, the heathen negroes of old 
Canaan, which was fulfilled as follows : The Jews 
had been made in great numbers prisoners of war, 
and carried away into captivity by the Tyrians prior 
to the time of Joel the Prophet, and were sold to the 
Grecians, who dwelt about the western end of the 
Mediterranean, now known as Spain and Italy, far 
west of Judea, but were released by Alexander the 
Great, who was a Greek, and by his successors, when 
they returned again to Judea. But when this great 



144 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

warrior had made a conquest of Tyre^ which the 
reader will not forget was a Canaanitish city and 
kingdom, he reduced all the lower orders of the peo- 
ple to a state of slavery, men, women, and children, 
amounting to 30,000 at one time, who were sold on 
the spot to whosoever would buy them. And besides 
this^ when Artaxerxes-Ochus destroyed Zidon, anoth- 
er city of old Canaan, and had reduced the captives 
to be sold as slaves, the Jcws^ as Joel had foretold, 
were present, and bought as many as they could, and 
sold them again to the Saheans, a people dwelling 
far to the east of old Phoenicia or Palestine, in Arabia- 
deserta, bordering on the sea of Arabia, which is an 
arm or bay of the Indian ocean, a distance of full 600 
miles from Zidonia, their native country, among 
which people they are slaves to this day, as also in 
both Indies, Hindostan, and in all Asia. 

Here we see the Jews, by the direct providence of 
God, in the fulfillment of the prophesy of Joel^ as 
well as in accordance with the law of Moses, and the 
curse of Noah, speculating in the jnirchase and sale 
of vast droves of the negroes of Tyre and Zidon, as 
is often done, now-a-days, with the same race of peo- 
ple in the United States, and parts of Europe, not- 
withstanding the recent agreement among the pow- 
ers of Christendom, making it piracy to do so ; so 
careful is the Divine veracity of its own honor. 

Is this account, as above given, from the Holy 
Scriptures, respecting the buying and selling of the 
progeny of Ham by the Jews, to be looked upon as 
" a mere silent entry ^'' made by the prophet Joel, of 
the wicked deeds and acts of those Jews, as abolition- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



145 



ists would say it was, when both prophesy and Prov- 
idence, as well as the direct mandate of God on the 
subject, are all seen engaged together to accomplish 
it, and it was accomplished ? 

But, says one, what was the mandate of God on 
the subject above alluded to ? It was this : God said 
by the mouth of /oe/, one of his prophets, that the 
Jews, should absolutely sell the blacks of old Tyre 
to the Sabeans (red men), and they did it according- 
ly as God had determined they should. 

Who, after reading and considering these cases, as 
presented on the pages above, will still object, and 
say, that in the Scriptures there is no account found, 
where a Hebrew, Jew, or Israelite, sold again the. 
slave that he had bought. 

But in pursuit of the same subject, namely, that 
the Jews did traffic in slaves, we are able to prove 
that Solomon, the wisest king who ever sat on a 
throne, the great and good monarch of the twelve 
tribes, actually carried on a regular trade in slaves 
from countries very far from Judea, where he resided, 
as well also as in Canaan, or the Holy Land. 

In proof of this, see Antiquities of the Jews, by 
Josephus, book 8, chapter 7, page 293, as follows: 
" King Solomon had many ships that lay upon the 
sea of Tarsus (the Red Sea) ; these he commanded 
to carry out all sorts of merchandise unto the re- 
motest nations, by the sale of which, silver and 
gold were brought to the king, and a great quantity 
of ivory, apes, and Ethiopians ; and they finished 
their voyage, going and returning, in three years' 
time." 
7 



146 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

Josephus is not alone in this, for the Rabbi say the 
same thing, that is, that the ships of Solomon went 
to Africa (Clarke), and as he possessed many thou- 
sands of black slaves of the Canaanite character, 
what, in his mind, could therefore arise, as an objec- 
tion to his adding to the number of the same race of 
men, though procured from a distant country, or the 
places of their nativity. 2 Chron. ix, 21. In the 
wars the Jews had with the Ethiopians and Lybians, 
from Africa, as in the case of Asa, one of the kings 
of Judah, about 900 years B. C. See 2 Chronicles, 
chap. xiv. In that war, Zerah, the black king of 
Ethiopia, had a million of men, with whom he in- 
vaded Judea, and was wholly defeated by Asa, for 
God fought the battle. All the prisoners of this in- 
comprehensible host were taken and held as slaves, 
which was the usage of war in those times. 

But if the word Ethiopian, as used by Josephus, 
to the mind of any reader, should not exactly prove 
that negroes or black men were alluded to by him, 
we will state that the American folio edition of Jo- 
sephus says negroes, instead of Ethiopians, which, in 
reality, are but two words meaning the same thing; 
making it clear, beyond all controversy, that Solo- 
mon did trade in negroes bought in foreign countries, 
from those who had them to sell, or Josephus is no 
authority. 

But the authenticity of Josephus cannot be doubt- 
ed, in relation to the voyages spoken of by that his- 
torian, for the account is corroborated by the Scrip- 
tures : see 1 Kings x, 22, where those voyages are 
specifically described. And besides this traffic of his 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 



147 



from foreign countries, the land of Ophir, <fcc., Solo- 
mon made slaves of tens of thousands of the blacks 
of old Canaan, while building the temple, his own 
house, and Tadnior in the desert, the store cities, and 
Hamath^ the upper and lower Bethoran, fenced cities, 
with walls, gates, and bars, as well as Belath, all 
great and magnificent works, of immense cost and 
labor, the ruins of which are seen at the present day, 
especially" those of Tadtnor of the desert, 

Solomon was not ignorant of the judicial act of 
God, as made known by the mouth of Noah, respect- 
ing the descendants of Ham, nor of the law of Mo- 
ses, which indorsed that judicial enactment by the 
ministry of angels, respecting the people of the blacks, 
in their exposedness to, and fitness for, slavery. He 
was not ignorant of Joshua's opinion on the same sub- 
ject, as expressed when that renowned warrior told 
the Gibeonites, who were one of the tribes of the race 
of Ham, in Canaan, that they were cursed, and never 
to be freed from being bondmen or slaves. 

That king Solomon had slaves in abundance, is 
written by his own hand, v/hich writing is still ex- 
tant, and that he bought them is also stated by him, 
and that from the slaves thus bought, or otherwise 
procured in the negro countries, he raised others, as 
do the owners of slaves at the present time. 

For the proof of the above, see Ecclesiastes ii, 7, as 
follows : " I got me servants and maidens, and had 
servants born in my house." 

Now, Solomon was a preacher, or a minister of 
religion, as well as a king, as he calls himself thus 
in chap, i, verse 1, of Eccl., and if such a man had 



148 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

slaves of the negro race (as to enslave any other peo- 
ple was not tolerated by their law), why is it that 
ministers of religion at the present time may not also 
have them if they desire it? The possession of 2>ro/>- 
erty was never abrogated to the Jews by the edicts 
of the Gospel, and as slaves, were esteemed property 
by them in every age of their existence ; the abro- 
gating power of the neiu dispensation, therefore, had 
no more to do with the slave question then, noxnow, 
than it had with any property, or any other subject 
not embraced in the ritual of the Jewish religion; 
this is the very reason why St. Paul, nor any of the 
writers of the New Testament, no, not even Christ 
himself, did not meddle with that subject, otherwise 
than to admonish, or command, that masters of 
slaves should treat them with kindness. 

In the above scripture it is seen that Solomon 
speaks of his jpossessions of cattle and slaves, all in 
one verse, in no way varying either the sejise or the 
phraseology, making no distinction, but amalgamates 
them together as an item in the amount of his pro- 
digious wealth. 

But not only Solomon procured slaves from Africa, 
but all the kings of the East, the Chaldeans, the 
Medes, Persians, Assyrians, Arabians, <fcc., which is 
intimated in the xixth and xxth chapters of Isaiah, as 
follows : "In that day shall there be a highway out of 
Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into 
Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria ; and the Egyp- 
tians shall serve with the Assyrians." In this verse 
their state of slavery is more than intimated, which 
they were to endure among the Assyrians as slaves. 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 



149 



But in the xxth chapter, verses 3 and 4, the fact of 
their being enslaved by those eastern powers is plain- 
ly stated, as follows : "And the Lord said. Like as 
my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot 
three years for a sign and a wonder upon Egypt and 
upon Ethiopia ; so shall the king of Assyria lead away 
the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians cap- 
tives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with 
their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt." 

Thus we see that in all ages, Africa has been the 
great breeding house of slaves for all mankind, for 
at this day all Asia is full of negro slaves, the de- 
scendants of the slaves of those first ages, procured 
from old Canaan and Africa. 

For an account of the almost countless number of 
Canaanitish bondmen employed in the works of Sol- 
omon, see book of Joshua ix, 23, and 2 Chron. ii, 
17, 18. See also 1 Kings ix, 20-22, for an account 
of the bond service, levied by Solomon upon the 
Amorites, Hivites, Perizzites, Hittites and Jebtisites, 
who were all of the black race of the Canaanites, the 
sons of Ham. 

According to Josephus, book viii, p. 21, Solomon 
took the tribute due to him from a certain district of 
old Canaan situate between Lybanus and the city 
Ametha, in slaves, so many a year; these were the 
blacks of that country. 

It appears, therefore, that Solomon considered it 
right to enslave and oppress in this respect, the race 
of Ham wherever he could find them, whether in old 
Canaan, Africa, or any where else, except he was in 
league or compact, by treaty, as appears to have been 



150 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

the case between him and Hiram, the king of Tyre, 
at that particular time, and in that district over which 
he then reigned. 

Now, for all this, we do not find that Solomon was 
reproved, as he was for some other acts of his life ; 
there arises, therefore, from this fact, namely, that of 
his not being reproved for enslaving the negro race, 
a strong evidence that the Jews, their kings, priests, 
prophets, elders, patriarchs, rulers and people, held it 
to be right, and in perfect harmony with the law of 
Moses, to enslave that race wherever they existed, 
except in cases of compacts or treaties, as in the case 
of Tyre, and the king of Egypt, with whom Solo- 
mon had leagues of amity, for the time being. 

No nation of the globe has equalled the Jews, in 
the enslaving of the negro nations (except the negroes 
themselves), for even Moses assisted in reducing one 
of the fiercest of the nations who opposed him and 
the Hebrews in their progress toward the land of Ca- 
naan, to personal and literal slavery ; these were the 
Amalekites, dwelling on the wilderness side of Ca- 
naan, toward Egypt on the south. 

This was done after the famous battle fought be- 
tween the Hebrews and the Amalekites, over which 
Moses presided, when Hur and Aaron supported his 
arms, as he held out toward the contending armies 
from the top of the mountain, the fatal spear — see 
Exod. xvii, 12. The prisoners then taken in that 
conflict were reduced to personal slavery, and that 
under the eye and approval of Moses ; which, had it 
been wrong, or a sin, would then and there have 
been rebuked, as God allowed of no heinous or pub- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 151 



lie crime in the camp of the Hebrews, to go unpun- 
ished and reproved on the spot. 

But how is it proved that Moses did this, seeing 
the Bible does not mention the circumstance? It is 
proven by Josephus. See his Jewish Antiquities, 
book iii, chap, ii, p. 85, who there says, that the vic- 
tory then won, "was the occasion of their (the He- 
brews) prosperity, not only for the present, but for 
future ages also ; for they not only made slaves of 
the bodies of their enemies, but effectually damped 
their minds, and after the battle, the Hebrews be- 
came terrible to all that dwelt round about them." 

Even the temple of God had its slaves of the negro 
and Canaanitish race, Avho were called the Nethin- 
ims or slaves of the temple, says Dr. Clarke, who 
were the descendants of the Giheonites, condemned 
to that condition by Joshua. See 1 Chron. ix, 2. 
That the Jews made bond slaves of such of the Ca- 
naanites as they took in war, is shown 1st Chron. v, 
from the 18th to the 22d verse inclusive, where the 
history of a great battle is related, that took place be- 
tween the Israelites and a people of old Canaan, 
called Hongarites, of whom they made 100,000 pris- 
oners. These prisoners, says Clarke in his com- 
ment on the place, were made slaves of, and not slain 
in the war. 

From 1 Kings ii, 39, 40, it appears that private 
citizens, of the city of David, had slaves of the black 
or negro race, who were Canaanites. The place 
reads as follows: "And it came to pass at the end 
of three years [in the time of king David], that two 
servants of \one\ iShwiei ran away [out of Judea] 



152 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

unto Achisk, son of Macha, king of Gath. And they 
told Shimei, saying, behold thy servants be in Gath. 
And Shimei arose and saddled his ass, and went to 
Gath, to Achish, to seek his servants from Gath." 

That these two servants were of the negro race, is 
shown by their running away to Gath, as Gath was 
inhabited by Philistines, a branch of the house or 
race of Mezarim, a son of Ham, and founder of the 
first settlement of lower Egypt, These Philistines, 
it appears, had not as yet, though in the days of Da- 
vid, been cut off by the wars of the Jews. It was, 
therefore, natural for the two slaves of the wealthy 
Shimei to fly for protection to a people of their own 
color and nation. Had those servants been of the 
Hebrew blood and entitled to their freedom at the 
jubilee, which happened at the end of every six 
years, they never would have fled from their own 
people and country to a negro heathen people. If 
these servants of Shimei had not been slaves, in the 
property sense of the word, but merely hired men, as 
abolitionists contend all servants were, then were they 
free men, and had no need of running away out of 
the country from their owner; neither could Shimei 
have demanded and took them away from Gath, as 
he did, had they not been slaves, for at this time there 
was no war between the Jews and the people of Gath. 
They were, therefore, slaves and of the race of Ham, 
in the proper sense of the word. 

There is no subject upon which the Scriptures 
have spoken that is more circumstantial and plain 
than that of individual slavery, in relation to the de- 
scendants of the blood of Ham. First of all, and 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



153 



more than four hundred years before the giving of 
the law by Moses, at the very time when God made 
a covenant with Abraham respecting the promised 
Messiah, the sign of which was circumcision, we find 
the buying of slaves, even by Abraham, incidentally 
alluded to. See Gen. xvii, 13, 23, as follows: "He 
that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with 
money ^ must needs be circumcised; and Abraham 
took Ishmael his son. and all that were born in his 
house, and all that were houglit with his money. 
every male among the men of Abraham's house 
[slaves and all], and circumcised the flesh of their 
foreskin, in the self same day, as God had said to 
him." 

In Exodus xii, 44, the buying of slaves is also in- 
cidentally mentioned as follows : " But every man 
servant that is bought for money ^ when thou hast cir- 
cumcised him, then shall he eat thereof," that is, of 
the passover. But that such servants as were bought 
with money, as above spoken of, were not so many 
hired men, as abolitionists seem to believe, appears 
from the next verse, the 45th, following the above 
quotation, which reads thus: "A foreigner, and a 
hired servant, shall not eat thereof." 

From this statement it is clear, therefore, that a 
bond slave was not considered as a hired man. Is 
not this decisive respecting the difference between 
the two characters ? 

At the time when God made this covenant with 
Abraham, he was dwelling at a place called Bethel 
(Gen. xiii, 3), which was in the very midst of the 
Canaanite country: of whom, therefore, could he 



i^*'j.'*W*»«y"t*t/^*«/^'*,« 



154 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

have bought his bondmen, except of the black peo- 
ple of Canaan, who at that time possessed the coun- 
try, as the original inhabitants. It is likely, also, 
that many of his slaves were brought with him from 
Egypt, on his return from that country, to which he 
and Lot had fled some years before, on account of a 
great famine in the country of Canaan (Gen. x, 12), 
as at the time he was rich in silver, gold, cattle and 
slaves. 

In these countries, Egypt and Canaan, there were 
at this time no other people but the aboriginal ne- 
groes; the people, afterward known as Ishmaelites, 
or Arabs, did not then exist, nor had the white na- 
tions of men penetrated those countries from the 
north, where they first settled after the flood. The 
servants or slaves of Abraham, therefore, were of the 
negro race, and them only. 

Abraham was not ignorant of the fiat of Noah, in 
relation to that people, nor of their naturally low cast 
of mind: on which account he felt for them, and 
bought as many as he could out of pity, as under his 
protection they were much more happy than in a state 
of freedom. 

From Gen. xxvi, 13, 14, wo learn that Isaac, the 
son of Abraham, had a vast host of slaves at the time 
he dwelt in Gerah, among the Philistines, who were, 
as before said, a branch of the family of Egypt. 
The account is as follows : " And the man [Isaac] 
waxed great, and went forward and grew until he 
became very great ; for he had possessions of flocks, 
and possessions of herds, and great store of servants, 
and the Philistines envied him." In this /.rait of the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 155 

patriarchal history, respecting tlieir weahh, it seems 
that their slave property is mentioned, and mixed up 
with the inventory, the same as is the account of 
flocks and herds, mailing no difference between them. 

From the reasoning of Adam Clarke on the mean- 
ing of the word servant, it appears that the term slave 
is the highest possible idea the word conveys, while 
the word servant is but a secondary, an accommo- 
dated, or lower application and meaning of the term. 
See his comment on the 1st chapter of the Romans, 
page 36, where he insists that to be the servant of 
Jesus Christ was, as St, Paul has said, to be his slave 
or projyerty, and that he had no right to himself, or 
any of the poivers of soul or body — all belonging to 
liis master, Jesus Christ. 

This, therefore, establishes that the term, bo7id ser- 
vant, as used every where in the Bible, signifies a 
bond slave, and not a hired servant, or a servant of 
any other kind, but slave in the true proj)erty sense 
of the word. And who is the man who can gainsay 
the criticisms of Dr. Adam Clarke on the ancient lan- 
guages, especially the Hebrew and Greek? Slavery, 
and the possession of slaves, in all Patriarchal, Jew- 
ish and Christian history, as given in the Bible, was 
as popular as was the possession of property of any 
other kind. 

That the great store of servants possessed by Isaac, 
the son of Abraham, when he lived in Gerar, among 
the Philistines (south toward Egypt and not a great 
way from the place where, in after ages, the temple 
was built), were slaves of the negro race, is shown from 
the fact, that the people of Canaan, Egypt. Philistia. 



156 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

(fee, were blacks at that time. The servants or 
slaves, therefore, which Isaac had, must have been 
of that race. At that time there were no Ishmaelites, 
no EdoniiteSj no Moabites, no ATumonites — no de- 
scendants of Abraham, Lot, Jacob or Esau, of any 
account: all these families, at the time of Jacob's 
flourishing, were but young, like himself, and, of ne- 
cessity, were at that time but few in number ; even 
in his own family there were but two sons, Jacob and 
Esau. From this it follows, therefore, that the 
slaves he had were somehow procured from among 
the people where he sojourned and got his great 
wealth. This, to the writer, appears as absolute de- 
monstration. 

Of the same race were the servants who were given 
to Abraham by king Abimelech, of Gerar, long before 
the birth of Isaac. See Gen. xx. 14, where there is 
an account of the great fear that king fell into on ac- 
count of his love to Sarai, Abraham's wife. But God 
showed him, in a dream, that he must not touch her, 
or himself, with all his house, should die. Now, 
when Abimelech had seen God in this dream, and 
had been directed what to do, it is written, in the 
chapter above quoted, that he made great presents 
to Abraham of sheep, oxen, me7i and women servants, 
besides a thousand j)ieces of silver. 

Now, if the servants who were given by Abimelech 
to Abraham, together with the sheep and oxen, were 
not jnoperty slaves, how could he have done it; or 
how could the righteous man, Abraham, have re- 
ceived them, and thus take away their liberty, if they 
had any. except he considered it right to enslave 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 157 

them? But Abimelech did thus give them, together 
with the herds, and Abraham did thus receive them. 

Had these servants, thus transferred, no relation to 
leave, no affinities of kindred, from whom they were 
parted by the inexorable Abimelech and Abraham, in 
whose ears the loud and heart-rending cries of sons, 
grandmothers and babes, sounded as sweet music? 
No doubt but they had ; just as much as is often the 
case among the negro families of the south, in Amer- 
ica and elsewhere, when they are sold or transferred; 
and yet Abraham took them — that righteous man of 
God and a holy prophet. What would the abolition- 
ists have said, if they had been there? Oh, ye 
powers, how they would have spouted forth words 
of mighty eloquence, stamped with their feet and 
banged about with their fists, looked red in the face, 
stretched up their length in altitude, frowned, grin- 
ned and shook their heads, as they do now-a-days, 
when holding forth abolitionism — and particularly 
when paid for it by the year, some six or eight hun- 
dred dollars. 

Respecting the servants of Abraham, especially 
those that were bought with his money, they were 
of the same race ; for the same reason as above, there 
being no other people at the time in old Canaan but 
the blacks of the country, for Abraham was a for- 
eigner, a Chaldean from beyond the Euphrates, east. 
But after the lapse of some four or five hundred 
years, going down to the time of Moses, and the wars 
of Canaan, then these descendants of the blood of 
Abraham, besides the Jews, had become innumerable. 

Abolitionists, in order to make sport of the opmion, 



158 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

that the Jews, when they had got possession of Ca- 
naan, made slaves of the people instead of hiring 
them, ask, with a leer, how they did it. They wish 
to know if they took an armed band, with ropes and 
shackles, so as to tie them when they were caught, 
and thus compel them to slavery. 

But of this query there is no need ; for 3Ioses, long 
before they had possession of Canaan, pointed out 
how this was to be done, especially in times of jJeace, 
for the Jews were not always at war with the Ca- 
naanites. See Levit. xxv, 45, where the mode of 
getting slaves is alluded to, as follows: ''Moreover, 
of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among 
you, oi them shall ye huy^ and oi \he\x families that 
are with you, which they begat [or may beget] in 
your land, and they shall be your possession." 

Here the difficulty vanishes, and with it the imag-' 
ined armed band, ropes and shackles of abolitionism, 
as there could be no need of tying children, whom 
they might buy of suchCanaanitish families as would 
be willing to sell them. It is well known that the 
negroes of all ages have been in the practice of sell- 
ing their own children^ when pressed by want, as 
they now do nearly all over Africa — who also en- 
slave myriads of their own people by force, as we 
shall show in the course of the work. 

As to the race inland in Canaan, they were never 
entirely exterminated by the Jews, as there were al- 
ways remnants of tribes left in the land, who con- 
tinued during the Whole Jewish history, from Moses 
until they were destroyed by the Romans— a lapse of 
more than fifteen hundred years. There Avas always, 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 159 

therefore, abundant opportunity for the Jews to pur- 
chase children of the people of that cast for slaves, 
as Moses had told them in the law should be their 
privilege. 

Having, as proposed in the commencement of this 
section, shown that the law of Moses did indorse and 
sanction the enslaving of the race of Ham, as de- 
nounced by Noah, and that the Hebrews, through 
the whole Jewish history, acted toward them on that 
principle, we pass to other matters respecting the race. 
One of those matters will consist of an inquiry, 
whether God created the race of Ham, equal with the 
descendants of the other sons of Noah, in point of 
native intellectuality, and especially, with those of 
Japheth, the white race. 

From Noah's lips went forth the dire account, 

Which echoed on the top of Sinai's mount 

That God judicially decreed by name 

The race of Ham for slaves — th' lambent flame. 

Gave out a voice, all holy — not a flaw, 

And there indorsed the same in Hebrew law. 

Now let no erring man deride the stroke, 

Foi judgment is God's strange and fearful work. 

[Isaiak xxviii, 26. 



160 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



SEVENTH SECTION. 

Arguments and positions of abolitionists favoring a belief that the 
Scriptures recognize the negro man as being equal with the other 
races, in point of blood and otherwise, refuted — Mark of Cain— 
What it was — No black men or negroes before the flood except 
one — Difference between the secreting power of the blood of white 
and negro men — Evidences that the Supreme Being puts a high- 
er estimate on white than on black, as colors or complexions- 
Consent to this difference by the blacks themselves, though inci- 
dentally given, according to the accounts of travelers in Africa — 
A curious argument of abolitionists in favor of negro equality 
replied to, with many other interesting matters. 

In this division of the work we shall examine a 
passage of Scripture, upon which abolitionists build 
their theory of the negro's natural and mental equal- 
ity with white men. This passage of Holy Writ, 
upon which hangs the claimed excellence of that 
race, is written in the book of Acts xvii, 26, as fol- 
lows : " God hath made of one blood all nations of 
mettf to divell on all the face of the earth, and hath 
determined the times afore appointed, and the bounds 
of their habitations J'' 

The arguments drawn from the Scripture by abo- 
litionists, run tMis : 

In the veins of Adam, the first man and great fa- 
ther of all mankind, the blood of the negro race, as 
well as the blood of the other races, flowed free and 
full, on which account his equality with all other 
people is clearly made out, as they believe. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



161 



But to this opinion, we reply that there was never 
any negro blood in the veins of Adam, nor blood 
which produced the black or African race, naturally ; 
whoever believes there was, will find it necessary to 
prove, that there were black men in the very family 
of Adam, and that they continued on down the course 
of time, as part and parcel of the antediluvian popu- 
lation, till the flood ; which it is not possible to prove. 

Should we allow that Cain's mark which was set 
upon him by the Divine power, was that of a black 
skin, this would not prove that it was derived from 
Adam's veins, but from a curse rather. 

The mark, however, as held by the Jews, was not 
any affection of the skin of Cain, but an affection of 
the nerves, by which means he became a parali/tic, 
or trembler ; hence he was called Nod, the vagabond 
or the trembler, which also gave the same name to 
the country whither he fled, from the face of his fa- 
ther's family. If that mark iras a black skin, yet 
this could not affect the children of Cain, unless, to- 
gether with that mark, his nahire and constitution 
was also changed, so that his race could partake with 
him of that curse. But were we to allow this, so as 
to make out the being of negroes before the flood, yet 
they could not be the progenitors of the 'present ne- 
groes of the earth, as all Cain's race, with all the oth- 
er races were lost in the flood. On this account, we 
are the more confirmed in the belief, that the first ne- 
gro of the earth was Ham, a son of Noah, and that 
Cain and his people, were no more negroes or black 
men than Adam was. 

If then; the blood of Adam did not produce a vari- 



162 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

egated multitude of human beings in relation to their 
complexions, differing as widely from each other as 
do black and white, then the blood of the tohite and 
the black man, did not flow in the veins of Adam, as 
S2ich, or in this variegated condition, so as to produce 
by natural generation, black, white, and red, with all 
the hues of the human race intermixedly, like cattle 
or the fowls of the air. 

Adam's blood, as the text reads, was but one blood 
only, not many bloods. This one blood could pro- 
duce of itself, naturally, but one general character of 
human beings ; this we think, is an incontrovertible 
position, proved true in the experience of all ages, by 
the progenies of the different races which now exist. 

This was certainly the opinion of St. Luke, who 
Avas a 'physician, and of course a learned man — a 
philosopher, who wrote the famous passage above al- 
luded to, as well as the whole book in which that 
passage is found ; for he calls the blood of Adam in 
that scripture, one blood and no more. 

Of this one blood God made the two other bloods, 
as we have shown on the first pages of this work. 
Into these two new bloods, God infused, or created, 
two secreting principles ; one depositing between the 
outer and secondary skin of the body of one of these 
men a lohite mucus, causing the skin of that man to 
be ivhite, and between the outer and inner skin of the 
other a black mncus, causing that man to be black. 

That such is the fact 7io70, is well known to phys- 
iologists, who admit that these mucuses cause the 
difference in the colors of all the human complexions. 
Did all these mucuses float between the inner and 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 163 

outward skin of Adam 7 If so, then he was a very 
mottled looking object indeed, being red, black, and 
white, confusedly mixed together. 

The creation, or infusing of this secreting principle 
into the blood of Japheth and Ham was miraculous^ 
and no more difficult for the performance of the Di- 
vine hand than was the creation of the inucus, which 
gave the red color to Adam's skin at first. 

That a variety of nations has been made out of 
that one first blood, is the very thing the writer, St. 
Luke, means, when he says, that God made of one 
blood all nations, &c. He does not say that all na- 
tions, all colors and kinds of people existed primarily 
in that first blood of Adam, but that out of, or froin^ 
that blood the other bloods have been produced. 

From that scripture, therefore, as we deem, the 
equality of the negro race with the white race is not 
made out ; as the color ^ formation, woolly hair, thick 
skull, pointed 'posteriors, large foot, pouting lips, 
wide and flatted nose, loio forehead, hollow and com- 
pressed temples, narroiv monkey shaped waist, wide 
chest, angular shaped legs, were not, and could not 
have been, the direct and natural propagation of 
Adam's blood. 

But, says one, if it was God who made this change 
in the blood of Adam, when he formed those two 
sons, Japheth and Ham, so that, contrary to nature, 
Noah and his wife became the parents of two races 
of men entirely diverse from themselves, how is it 
that the negro man is not equally honorable with the 
white man, seeing it was God who was the author 
of this curious miracle ? 



164 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

It is made out that he is not equal, not only from 
the everywhere staring fact of the actual difference 
there is between the white and black races, but also 
from the ability of the Creator to make of one blood 
as many nations of men as he would, some to honor, 
and some to dishonor, exercising his power arbitrari- 
ly, as does the potter over the same lump of clay: 
Romans ix, 20, 21. 

Thus has God seen fit to do in the creation of the 
two races of men, the negroes and the whites ; one 
is degraded by natural tendencies, with a curse or a 
judicial decree to announce it, and the other with a 
blessing, equally judicial, both being dictated by the 
Holy Ghost from the lips of Noah. 

As to the intrinsic superiority of a white complex- 
ion over that of black, there is no question ; for, by 
the common consent of all ages among men, and even 
of God himself in heaven, there has been bestowed on 
white the most honorable distinction. White has 
become the emblem of moral purity and truth, not 
only on earth, but in eternity also, as it is said of the 
saints, that they shall walk with the Lamb in white, 
not in black (Rev. iii, 4, 5), and be clothed in white 
raiment. When Christ, the Lamb that was slain, ap- 
peared to John, the beloved disciple, on the isle of 
Patmos, it was in the splendor of white. See Rev. i, 
14: "His head and his hairs were lohite like wool, as 
white as snowP The same is said by Daniel, to whom 
this same glorious being appeared, some five hundred 
years before his appearance to St. John. See book 
of Daniel, chop, vii, 9, as follows: "I beheld till the 
thrones [of earth] were cast down, and the Ancient of 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE 165 

days [God Almighty] did sit, whose garment was 
white as snoio, and the hair of his head Hke the pure 
wool," being excessively white. In this same char- 
acter, as to appearance, he was seen on the top of a 
high mountain when transfigured, as stated by Mat- 
thew, chap, xvii, 2, where it is said, that his face 
shone as the sun, and that his raiment was as white 
as the light. In Rev. xx, 11, the very throne of God 
in heaven is said to be white, as follows : " And I 
saw a great lohite throne, and him that sat on it, from 
whose face the earth and the heaven [firmament] fled 
away." 

The Savior of mankind, though born of a Jew- 
ish copper colored woman, was nevertheless a white 
man. This complexion, which characterized the 
body of God incarnate, was such as pleased him, or he 
would not thus have appeared. The proof that he 
was a white man, is derived from a letter, written by 
a Roman Senator from Judea, in the time of Augus- 
tus CsBsar, to Rome. In that letter, which is now 
extant, the man Jesus Christ is said to have been a 
man of surpassing beauty, having a bright fair com- 
plexion, with hair of the color of a x'v^e filbert^ which 
is inclining to the yellow or golden color. His eyes 
were of the hazel or blue cast ; his forehead high, 
smooth, and broad. His stature tall and exceeding- 
ly graceful, every motion and attitude bore the stamp 
of perfection, over all of which there was an in- 
describable sweetness, as well as of resistless com- 
mand. 

If the hair of his head was light colored, and his 
eyes of a blueish hazel, then he must have been of a 



166 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

white complexion, as no copper colored Jew, Arab, or 
Indian, ever have such hair, or such eyes. 

This being true, it adds another proof that, in the 
estimation of the Creator, the white complexion, such 
as is possessed by the race of Japheth, is more valu- 
able than black or red, or the Son of God would not 
have chosen a body thus complexioned to make his 
appearance as the second Adam, or the Lord from 
Heaven. 

Are not these instances sufficient to establish the 
point, that white has obtained the most honorable dis- 
tinction, both in heaven and on earth, over that of 
black. Could this be so, were there not intrinsicalhj 
something more valuable and pleasing to the Divine 
Being, in the fulgence of whiteness^ than is in its op- 
posite, which is black. 

White is the sign of life and being; for, previous 
to the existence of all created things over the whole 
face, as well as throughout the whole space of bound- 
less, shoreless, fathomless, interminable eternity, there 
was relatively nothing but one ocean of the black- 
ness of darkness. Light, which is ichlte, was there- 
fore the first sign of created being, and is a fit simili- 
tude of the uncreated God, of whom it is said that 
God is light. John i, 5. 

Black, in all ages, has been the sign of every 
hateful thing. If a man is uncommonly wicked, he is 
said to be a black hearted wretch, as a traitor, a liar, 
a thief, a murderer, fcc. Sackcloth of hair, so often 
alluded to in the Scriptures, was a cloth that was 
black, and was referred to as the sign of mourning, 
judgment, and death. Hell, itself, which is situated 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 167 

somewhere in the vast womb of eternal night, out- 
side, and beyond the whole universe of God, so far 
off from the pale of creation, and the space occupied 
710W by the great family of suns and worlds, which 
may yet be taken up by succeeding creations to all 
eternity, is spoken of as being " the blackness of dark- 
ness f Judc 13. In second Peter, the same place, 
hell, is again referred to as being a j^lace of darkness, 
where the angels, who kept not their Jirst estate, are 
bound in chains (or depths) of darkness, and are re- 
served to judgment. 

To the opinion of the superiority of white over 
black, the negroes themselves subscribe in the fact 
of their always and every where insisting that they 
ought to be called colored people, and not a black 
people, as they esteem it extremely degrading to be 
called negroes, or black people. 

But, says one, this kind of involuntary confession 
of the blacks, respecting the disagreeableness of their 
color, arises out of their bemg in countries where all 
power, influence, wealth, rule, government, &c., are 
in the hands of the whites ; but turn the tables, and 
step over to Africa, if you please, where you will find 
the negro man in his native glory, walking abroad 
in his primeval independence, having not a dream 
in the visions of his soul that a black skin is not a 
handsome and becoming complexion. We will step 
over to Africa, as the thing is easily done, and see 
whether it is really so, by making inquiries of trav- 
elers, who have made themselves familiar with their 
manners and customs, their loves and antipathies. 

As being pertinent to this subject, we shall make a 



168 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

few extracts from Bamberger's Travels in Africa. 
This man is a good witness, as he was many years 
in the interior of that country, having ran away from 
a Dutch mihtary garrison, at the Cape of Good Hope, 
and fled into the interior, hiding himself among the 
Caffres. of whom he learned the language of the ne- 
gro nations. 

From thence, after a long time, he traveled by 
piece meal, alone, and always nearly naked, the whole 
length of Africa, full four thousand miles, commenc- 
ing at the Cape, and coming out at Morocco, near 
Santa Cruz, being sixteen years in performing the 
journey, passing over sixty degrees of the globe, 
keeping along on the western side of the continent, 
at no great distance from the sea. This journey of 
Bamberger was commenced in 1781, over sixty years 
ago, and ended in 1797. This work may be seen in 
the State Library at Albany, New York. 

Buring this journey, Bamberger fell in with a 
tribe, or nation, by themselves, called Mattamans, 
with whose chief he remained some days to rest. 
This negro king was a powerfid man as to bone and 
muscle, but went about entirely naked, as did all his 
people, except a slender covering of the waist. A 
little distance from the residence of this chief, there 
was a son of his, whither Bamberger was desired to 
accompany the king on a visit. This son had two 
little daughters, one about nine, and the other seven 
years old, who, on beholding the white man as he 
drew near with their grandfather, came running to 
meet them. But instead of remaining to be carress- 
ed by their grandfather, they immediately left hini, 



FORTL'NESj OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



169 



and clung to the white man, though a stranger, leap- 
ing and playing about, and crying out with great 
glee and satisfaction, " Yo no colo, yo no colo /" that 
is, pretty white man, pretty white man. See Dam- 
berger^s Travels, vol. i, p. 175. 

This was the voice of nature speaking with the 
tongues of these children, in approval of the white 
man's complexion over their own, the same as they 
would have done on finding a pretty flower, a tree 
laden with berries, or any thing that was pleasing to 
their sight. 

The same kind of preference of many of the tribes, 
among whom he wandered, was shown to Bamber- 
ger, as well by the men as the women, who would 
gather round him, calling him handsome because he 
was white. Some would, in the most unreserved 
manner, lift his garments which he wore about his 
Avaist, and examine the sign of his sex with cries of 
approval, desiring a union of his blood with theirs. 
Yol. i, p. 99, 128. 

By one of the tribes this man fell in with, who 
were called Kinonians, he was scrutinized more 
closely than common, in relation to the idea above 
alluded to, and being highly approved of, on account 
of his great beauty and whiteness of complexion, 
they were strongly minded to detain him against his 
will, for the improvement of their race by amalgam- 
ation. On this account he made his escape by stealth, 
being assisted by a young negress of the tribe. Vol. 
ii, p. 103. 

Thus Bamberger was received wherever he went 
among the black nations of Africa. To the eye of 
8 



170 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

civilization, this poor runaway from the garrison of 
the Cape must have been a frightful looking being, 
as he was nearly naked, his skin sunburnt and scaly. 
His hair and beard grown to a most hideous length, 
poor and emaciated in person, and yet with all 
these disadvantages, the negroes, men and women, 
and even the children, were delighted with his beauty. 

When, for the first time, a child of the Avhite race 
sees a negro man, it is always frightened by the hor- 
ible apparition. Even to a man, or any person of 
adult years, the first sight of a black human being, 
gives them a shock, or a feeling of the most singular 
character, mixed up of pity, disgust and wonder, not 
experienced by negroes, on seeing a white human be 
ing for the first time. 

This admiration of the blacks, bestowed upon the 
white nations and individuals, is the. involuntary 
voice and approval of nature, which speaks always 
the truth, far enough removed from the influence of 
circumstances. 

When the famous traveler, Miingo Park, was in 
Africa, and having occasion to ascertain, in a certain 
place, the altitude of the sun, it was noticed that a 
powerful young negro man, as to size, a prince, as 
they said he was, but naked, paid very close atten- 
tion to the arrangement of the instrument, the quad- 
rant in particular, and saw that they were doing 
something about the sun, when he cried out in evi- 
dent distress of mind, ''^ black man nothing." Law- 
rence's Lectures, p. 420. 

Here, probably for the first time in his life, a 
thought respecting his race being black and degraded, 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 171 

arose in his mind, occasioned by a comparison of 
himself and people with the white men then before 
him, who appeared able even to measure that flam- 
ing globe of seeming fire, the sun, which had glared 
for ages along the highway of the heavens, and the 
thought alarmed him; so that in his native tongue he 
exclaimed, " black man nothing." 

Another evidence in support of the belief, that a 
white skin is preferred by the negro race, is afforded 
in the fact that, among the kings and petty chiefs of 
the Africans, a female who may chance not to be as 
black as common, is more highly prized as a beauty, 
and considered an acquisition of immense importance. 
In every part of the world, it is a matter of boasting 
with negro men and women, if they can show that 
they have white blood mixed with theirs ; or if they 
can get themselves united in consanguinity with the 
white race ; this is the same also among the Indians. 
It is a very rare thing, if it ever happens at all, for a 
negro man or woman to boast of the purity of their 
African blood, or of the intensity of the blackness of 
their bodies, or woolliness of their hair, while the con- 
trary is the fact, as they are rejoiced at any de- 
parture in their progeny from the baleful hue, wheth- 
er among white nations or in the wilds of Africa. 
Were it not for this trait in the character of their 
being, namely, their dissatisfaction with their forma- 
tion and complexion, there would be still greater 
reason to judge them as wanting in natural intel- 
lectuality. 

There is another position which the pleaders of 
negro equality and excellence urge with great impet- 



172 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



uosity, from which they infer that the God of the hu- 
man race never intended their enslavement. This 
position arises out of the circumstance of the Crea* 
tor having given to man in Adam, the control, rule 
and government, over all the animal creation, in their 
subjugation ; making thereby all nations and all 
races of men lords alike in this particular, as is seen 
to have been the case. Gen. i, 26, and ix, 2. The 
first was said when God was about to make man, 
as in the first quotation. The second was said, as 
in the last quotation, after the flood, to Noah and 
his family. 

As to the amount of the first scripture, it can have 
no application to the negro's case at all, in making 
them lords in that particular, equal with white men, 
over the animals of the earth, as during all the ages 
of the antediluvian world, there was not a negro on 
the earth, except Ham, the son of Noah. 

As to the amount of the second scripture, in rela- 
tion to the negro race, we do not in the least deny 
their equal lordship with white men, over all the an- 
imals of the globe ; but we deny that their equality 
can be made out of premises so small. Because God 
has given to the race of Ham some equal privilege 
with the race of Japheth, is he, therefore, in all re- 
spects his equal ? Though the negro race have an 
equal right to the elements of nature, as have all an- 
imals, yet this cannot, and does not, elevate the stand- 
ai"d of their capacities. 

The same God who gave to man, both black and 
white alike, the equal natural lordship of animals, 
has also, of his own good pleasure, placed the negro 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 173 

race within the control of his superior, which is as cer- 
tainly said in so many words, by Noah, as that it is 
said that God in the beginning made the heavens and 
the earth. 

The position is too far fetched, too circuitous and 
winding, to bear the straight forward light of truth, 
as all experience and observation in all ages, prove 
their inequality and mental inferiority with white 
men, even themselves being judges, as they never 
have claimed so high a standing as a people, that we 
are aware of. 

Having thus passed through the inquiry, respecting 
the original equality of the negro race with the rest 
of mankind, as claimed for them by abolitionists, oa 
the ground of the one hlood argument, derived from 
the book of Acts, and the fact of the negro's equal 
lordship over animals, we pass to an examination, in 
some degree, of their general, as Avell as particular 
and personal character, during which it will more 
and more appear, that they are not^ have never been, 
and can never be, the equals of white men in almost 
all the mental powers and capacities of human na- 
ture, and that they were thus produced by the Divine 
hand. 

As o'er their limbs a cloud of darkness lowers, 
So hangs a mental gloom upon their powers: 
The ray Divine gives not so fair a flame, 
Nor shows as much the glory of God's name, 
As on the white man's brow, his soul, his face, 
Is seen to shine — so pleased creative grace- 
Yet who is he that boasts, for can the clay 
Have glorying thoughts or proud words to say ? 



174 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



EIGHTH SECTION. 



Moral and civil character of the negro race — Acts of the negro 
Sodomites — Their lewdness, &c. — Proofs from many authors re- 
specting their amours with dumb beasts — As well from the Scrip- 
tures — Of this the Canaanites were guilty — As well as the Egyp- 
tians — Moses's testimony to this — Herodotus's testimony from 
his own observations when in Egypt — Gales's testimony — Son- 
?iini's testimony — Testimony of the Prophet Ezekiel — Curious 
sexual formation of the negro race — Lewd customs of the ancient 
Egyptians about their temples, as seen by Herodotus — Same traits 
of character among the negroes of all countries at the present 
time, in America, and every where — Dreadful practices of the 
women of Egypt — Writer's apology for plain writing on matters 
of this description — Proofs that Jezebel and all her priests were 
black, with some account of her character as a negress and a 
wanton — Account of automaton images made for lewd purposes 
by the women of those times — Pictures and images of the Ca- 
naanites — Influence of these doings of the negroes of those, ages 
on the Hebrews — Curious reason of the Jewish Rabbi why the dogs 
would not eat the head and hands of Jezebel — Horrid customs of 
the African negroes — Respecting the marriages of their young 
women, as related by Herodotus — Corresponding character of 
the Africans noio in these particulars, as related by travelers— 
Rollin's testimony to the same thing. 

As a justification of the severity of God against 
the race of Ham, we shall now give some account 
of their character, who, as will appear, are, and have 
always been, the faithful disciples, and imitators of 
their lascivious and degraded father. It is not to be 
doubted that Ham, notwithstanding the goodness of 
his two brothers, Shem, and Japheth, and his right- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



175 



eous patriarch father, was as wicked as any of the 
antediluvians, who were destroyed in the flood. But 
for the sake of the Divine Providence, carrying into 
efiect his plan of inhabiting the hot regions of the 
earth, after the flood, with a suitable race of men, who, 
in their constitutions and animal appetites, should be 
fitted to the climate, &c,, as before argued, this pro- 
genitor of all the Africans was taken in and preserved 
in the Ark, with the rest of Noah's family. 

A vivid, as well as a frightful trait of the charac- 
ter of this whole people, the races of Mezarim, Cush, 
Phut, and Canaan, the four sons of Ham, is shown 
in the actions of the Sodomites, in the days of Lot, 
the half brother of Abraham. 

The Sodomites were the same people with the 
Canaanites, living along the great vale of the river 
Jordan, which bounded the land of Canaan on the 
east toward Syria. The occasion on which their pe- 
culiar character and general behavior was manifested, 
is familiar to every reader of the Scriptures ; see Gen. 
xix, written by the hand of Moses, in substance as 
follows : 

On a certain day, as the sun was going down, 
there came toward the city of Sodom two young 
men, who, as Josephus says, were very beautiful 
and tall. They appeared as if weary, but manifest- 
ed no inclination to enter the gates of the place, or 
any house wherein to rest. But Lot, who lived 
there, happening just then to be reclining on a seat 
at the gate, which was near to his dwelling within, 
saw the strangers, and immediately rising up, invited 
them to accompany him to his house, and to tarry 



176 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

with him till morning, of which they accepted, 
though apparently in a reluctant manner. 

Now as soon as it was dark, the men of that part 
of the city assailed the dwelling of Lot, demanding 
that the two strangers should be brousht out into 
the street, that they might "know them," as they said. 
This peculiar term to ^^knoio fhe??i,^' was fraught with 
a meaning, of which hell and all its inhabitants 
would have been ashamed, had they heard it. To 
the demand however, Lot objected with great vehe- 
mence, saying, " I pray you, do not so wickedly," 

On hearing this, they became enraged at Lot, 
when they said they would deal worse with him 
than with the strangers, because he had, as they 
pretended, set himself up as a judge among them. 
Here they made a rush, crying out, stand back, in- 
tending to seize Lot, and to drag him into the street, 
where they meant to abuse him, in the same way 
they intended to abuse the two young men. 

But on the instant when their rage had gone up 
in the scale of fury to its highest altitude, and when 
their fingers were nerved with the deep energies of 
Satanic violence, ready to grasp their victims, the two 
young men, the strangers who stood just within, put 
forth their hands, and pulled Lot into the house, 
when they shut the door. But as the Sodomites 
pressed on, to break down the door of Lot's house, 
behold they were shrouded in a deep, thick darkness, 
so that they groped about miserably, not knowing 
where they were, or what they should do, for they 
had been struck in the midst of their fury, by an in- 
visible power, with blindness. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



177 



In this horrid condition they spent the night, see- 
ing nothing till morning, when their eyes were open- 
ed, and they saw the heavens teeming with glaring 
meteors of flame, which chased each other, as in 
sport, while others seemed to stand still, looking 
down on the devoted region below, as if they were 
endowed with thonghts, and were watching the pro- 
gress of Lot's escape to the mountains, beyond the 
plain. 

When this was accomplished, and Lot and his 
family were safe, then began the work of wrath, as 
if the lightnings of the elements from the four winds 
of heaven kept holyday, and yet were obedient to 
the beck of an awful hand, which far up in the 
gloomy concave was seen in flaming red, pointing 
them to their courses. Then fell a tempest of fire, 
mingled with burning brimstone, from the Lord, out 
of Heaven, destroying not only the great vale of Sod- 
om, but five cities, with hamlets and villages innu- 
merable. So violent and fierce was the fire, that it 
devoured the very gt'ound in all that region, as it was 
composed much of a bituminous strata, to a great 
depth, in which the Jordan flowed and formed the 
Dead Sea. 

Thus disappeared, at one buffet of the Almighty 
hand, many ten thousands of the lewd race of Ham, 
in a way the most horrible to think of There must 
have been some extraordinary reason for severity so 
amazing, as it was far more dreadful in its applica- 
tion, than either the curse of Noah, the exterminating 
decree against the Canaanites in the law of Moses, 
or their doom to perpetual slavery. 



178 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

Lewdness, of the most hideous description, was 
the crime of which they were guihy, blended with 
idolatry in their adoration of the gods, who v/ere 
carved out of wood, painted, and otherwise made, so 
as to represent the wild passions of lascivious desires, 
in both male and female forms. This was the char- 
acter of all the Hamethian race in old Canaan. 
Egypt, and every where, but more especially in Sod- 
om, who seem to have outdone all competitors, for 
they gave themselves entirely over, without the least 
reserve, even going after -• strange Jlesh,^'' which sig- 
nified dumb beasts [see St. Jude, verse 7], as well as 
man after man. 

For many particulars of the practices of the negro 
nations of these ages, see xviiith and xxth chapters 
of Leviticus, where it is shown that they outraged 
all order and decency of human society, making no 
difference between sisters, mothers, neighbors, wives, 
men, and animals, in their amours and sexual com- 
merce. 

Should the reader desire to know the truth on this 
subject, he will do well to examine the Scriptures 
above alluded to, where the crimes of these nations 
are set down in horrible array. To show this, we 
will make a brief quotation from the xviiith of Le- 
viticus, 22-24, as follows : " Thou shalt not lie with 
mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. 
Neither shalt thou lie with any heast, to defile thy- 
self therewith ; neither shall any if07?2a;i stand before 
a beast, to lie down thereto : it is confusion. Defile 
not yourselves in any of these things : for in all these 
the nations are defiled which I cast out before you." 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 179 

Now, what nations did God cast out of Canaan? 
The answer is, he cast out seven mighty negro na- 
tions, who were more powerful, and greater in num- 
bers, than were the Jews, all of whom, as said by 
Moses, were guihy of all the appalhng deeds, set 
down in order in the two chapters above referred to. 
Tliat such practices did prevail among the people of 
Ham, is stated not only by Moses, in his time, but 
Herodotus, the most ancient of the Greek historians, 
says the same thing respecting the negroes of his age. 
The statements of this author are to be relied on, 
saj'-s Adam Clarke, in his commentary on one of the 
same chapters we have referred the reader to as 
above, namely, the xxth of Leviticus, verse 16. 

Herodotus says that he saw, when he was in Egypt, 
with his own eyes, an Egyptian woman accompany- 
ing with a he-goat, in the very streets of the city she 
lived in. The time when Herodotus traveled in 
Egypt and other parts of Africa, was some 450 years 
B. C, and more than a thousand from the time of 
Moses, which "proves the incurable proneness of that 
people, the negro race, to the most extraordinary and 
shameful abuses of human nature. 

Dr. Clarke says, in his comment on Exod. xxii, 19, 
that it is certain, from an account in SonninVs trav- 
els in Egypt, that lying with dumb beasts is practiced 
even now, as well as in the time of Moses. The 
goat, in the New Testament, see Math, xxv, 33, is 
used as the symbol of all sinners. On this symbol, 
says Clarke, " the goat is naturally quarrelsome, las- 
civious, and excessively ill-scented, and was consid- 
ered a fit symbol of all riotous, profane, and impure 



180 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

men." How very similar, according to the above, 
were these two characters, the goat and the negro ? 
They were ahke in passions, in propensities, and in 
their smell, both disagreeable to excess. 

Gale, the traveler, says the same thing of the 
Egyptians ; who gives a description of a case of the 
kind, which he saw transacted between a he-goat 
and an Egyptian woman. Bochart gives many ex- 
amples of this character in his work. Says Adam 
Clarke, vol, ii. Coll. 641 : Moses, Joshua, and the 
Jews, have been accused of excessive cruelty, Avhile 
prosecuting their wars against the Canaanites, in the 
destruction of not only men, but helpless women and 
children. But let such persons as are offended on 
account of the rigor of the Jews against the Canaan 
ites, become acquainted with the true character of 
those nations, as well the women as the men, and they 
will not hesitate to justify God, who commanded 
their entire extermination, and those who execute 
those commands. 

Were there a district of country within the pale of 
Christendom, inhabited by blacks, or any other people, 
who were guilty of such things as Moses, Herodotus, 
Gale, Bochart, and many others say they were, there 
would be an immediate rush of mankind, of all or- 
ders, infidel and Christian, to cut them ofi', and to ob- 
literate every vestige of a people, so polluted in their 
propensities and deeds, from the face of the earth. 

The prophet Ezekiel's account of the negroes of 
Egypt and Canaan [chap, xvi, 26, 27], corroborates 
all that is said above, where he speaks of them as 
being '■'■great of Jlesh,^^ whose mischievous manners 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 181 

had corrupted the women of the Jews to such a de- 
gree that many of them had made themselves images 
of men, in imitation of the Egyptian images, and 
committed fornication with them, hterally. 

Tlie meaning of the words, ^^ great of Jiesh,^'' as 
used by the prophet Ezekiel, in reference to the 
Egyptian negroes, is said by an ancient writer, says 
Adam Clarke, in his comment on that place in Eze- 
kiel, in Latin, "Be7ie vasti longa mensiira incognita 
nerviy and applied strictly to the negro nations on 
that particular, as also it does at the present time. 

In chapter xxiii of that prophet, 8, 20, 21, 27, it is 
stated that all the lewd abominations practiced by 
the Jews, in his time, which was about 600 years B. 
C, were brought from Egypt, and learned of the 
Egyptians, whose flesh, says Ezekiel (verse 20), was 
as the flesh of asses^ and their issue as the issue of 
horses ; so gross, fierce, and brutal were they, in their 
love of disorderly practices. But what do the Scrip- 
tures mean in the above phraseology, respecting the 
Egyptians, namely, that their flesh was as the flesh 
of asses 7 Simply as follows : that betAveen the sexu- 
al members of the negro man and the brute called an 
ass, there v/as but little difference as to elongation 
and magnitude. 

If the passage is not thus understood, then it will 
follow that the Egyptian negroes, and consequently 
the wh'^le negro race, are not human ; for the proph- 
et plainly says, that their flesh was as the flesh of 
asses ; and asses are not human. To allow them, 
tlierefore, a place among the species called man, we 
are compelled to admit that interpretation. 



182 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

This very singular account respecting the pecuHar 
formation of the black race, as given by that prophet, 
is corroborated by Herodotus, the Greek, who says, 
chapters xlviii and xlix, pages 85, 87, that the linages 
of the sexual sign of the male of the hinnan race, as 
carried about the streets of Egypt, in the precincts 
of their temples, on certain festival days, were gen- 
erally a cubit in length. Now, the ancient cubit was 
from eighteen to twenty-one inches ; and why this im- 
itation was carried about on the days of their religious 
celebrations, Herodotus says he was not at liberty to 
relate. 

This was said by Herodotus out of fear, perhaps, 
of the priests of those temples. Were we to venture 
an opinion respecting what he would have said, had 
he been at liberty, it would have been that they wor- 
shiped, by aid of that kind of image, the -procrea- 
tive principle, by which means all animal life is pro- 
duced. The instrument of which, from analagous 
reasoning, according to Egyptian theology, might 
properly, therefore, be adored, a god well suited to 
the worship of Sodomites. 

As it respects the crime of Ham, the youngest 
son of Noah, Gen. ix, 22-24, it is believed by some, 
and not without reason, that it did not consist alone 
in the seeing his father's nakedness, as a man, but 
rather in the abuse and actual violation of his own 
mother. 

This opinion is strengthened by a passage found 
in Levit. xviii, 8, as follows : "The nakedness of thy 
father's t^//e shalt thou not uncover : it is thy /a^Aer'* 
nakedness." On account of this passage, it has been 



FORTUNES, OF TflE NEGRO RACE. 



183 



believed that the crime of Ham did not consist alone 
of seeing his father in an improper manner, but 
rather of his own mother, the wife of Noah, and of 
violating her. 

If this was so, how much more horrible, therefore, 
appears the character of Ham, and how much more 
deserving the curse, which was laid upon him and 
his race, of whom it was foreseen that they would be 
like this, their lewd ancestor. 

All Egypt, the Sodomites, the Canaanite nations, 
with all the negro heathen countries, practiced these 
outrages upon good order (as stated by Moses, see 
Levit. xviii, 3, and chap, xx, 23), without shame or 
remorse, as if, indeed, they considered themselves as 
being no better than the cattle of the fields. 

For these things, as foreseen, they were adjudged 
judicially, together with Ham, as an inferior race of 
men, and could never be elevated on account of their 
natures. 

The baleful fire of imchaste amour rages through 
the negro's blood more fiercely than in the blood of 
any other people, inflaming their imaginations with 
corresponding images and ideas, on which account 
they are a people who are suspected of being but lit- 
tle acquainted with the virtue of chastity, and of re- 
garding very little the marriage oath. In all the 
southern regions it is thus ; promiscuous intercourse 
of the sexes every where prevails among the blacks. 
This state of things is attested to by abolitionists 
themselves, in relation to the negroes of the southern 
states. 

For the proof of this, see " The Bible against Slav 



184 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

ery," No. 6, 1838, page 63, in a note^ as follows: 
" To the female character among the black popula- 
tion, we cannot allude but with feelings of the bitter- 
est shame. A similar condition of moral pollution 
and utter disregard of a pure and virtuous reputa- 
tion, is to be found only without the pale of Christen- 
dom.'' The same is said by the Rev. James A. 
Thome, as recorded in the pamphlet above alluded 
to, in a note, page 3, and was part of a set speech, 
delivered in New York, May, 1834, as follows : '^ I 
would not have you fail to understand (says Mr. 
Thorne) that this is a general evil. What I now 
say, I say from deliberate conviction of its truth, that 
the whole states are &odo?ns, and almost every fami- 
ly is a brothel. I refer to the inmates of the kitchens, 
not to the whites." 

But all this is told and published to the world by 
abolitionists, with the view of having it understood 
that this awful and ruinous propensity of the negroes, 
as well as the practice, is wholly owing to the insti- 
tutions of slavery. This, however, is not true ; for 
they have been always thus. From the very days 
of Ham, their father, down through their whole his- 
tory, whether in a civilized or savage state, whether 
in the wilds of Africa, the islands of the sea, whether 
enslaved or free, it was always so with them. 

That 07ie passion conquers all, and will conquer 
every mortal endeavor to elevate the race much 
above their present level. There is but one power 
that can help them, and this is the power which res- 
cued the man of Capernaum from the dominion of 
an "unclea?i devitp Luke iv, 33, that alone can 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



185 



change this trait of the black man's character. But 
although we admit, as in the above sentence, that 
there is a redeeming power, which, if sought unto 
by the negro man, can and will heal him of that in 
firmity ; yet, as we are informed, this very sin infects 
even the sanctuary of religion in the south among 
the negroes. 

For a proof of this, see a paper entitled the '-^Col- 
ored America7i" published in New York, by Charles 
Ray, No. 9, Spruce street. The date of the paper is 
March 7, 1840. This paper is devoted to abolition 
purposes, in which is the following account of the 
travels of a certain minister of the gospel, by the 
name of S. Hoes, through the southern country. 
This man, on arriving at the city of New Orleans, 
visited, one evening, a negro religious meeting, over 
which a white preacher presided. The congregation 
consisted of some eight hundred colored persons. 
Many of them seemed to be intelligent in their ajD- 
pearance. Their decorum in the church, and atten- 
tion to the sermon, was worthy of all imitation. 
They sung with great devotion and melody. Their 
piety, the minister said, was generally uniform and 
consistent, with but one exception. And what was 
that exception, think ye? it was jij^omisciious inter- 
course between the sexes, which the pastor said was 
their formidable sin, and of which they were guilty 
to an alarming degree, and was common throughout 
all that country, among the blacks. 

In this fact is seen how powerful an influence lewd- 
ness exerts over the degraded and low-minded spirits 
of the African race, v'olding themselves up to mere 



186 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

sensuality and devilishness, to the exclusion of all 
true virtue and elevation of soul. In their real char- 
acter, though reared up under the influence of the 
holy religion of Christ, we see, as in the case above 
named, no difference between them and the people 
of Egypt — lewdness being predominant in their char- 
acters, and an indifference to the regulations of vir- 
tuous principles. 

We consider that such things committed by the 
members of Christian societies are, if possible, far 
worse than the same acts performed by the Egyp- 
tians, who were under the influence of a religion 
which favored and encouraged the gratification of 
sense in this particular. But it is all one ; for it was 
the lewd propensities of that race of mankind, which 
moved their ancestors, in the days of Ham and Nim- 
rod, to invent and institute the rites of paganism, 
which favored, and even insisted, that the gratifica- 
tion of that one passion was a cardinal virtue, and 
pleasing to the gods : wherefore, in both cases, 
whether under the supervision of the pagan or the 
Christian religion, the character of the race appears 
to be the same — their nature predominates, and that 
alone. 

Herodotus says, that the women of Egypt would 
approach the images of the male character, of their 
own manufacturing, in the open streets, while multi- 
tudes were looking on, and capering to the sound of 
music, mixed with deep yells of revelry, while these 
rites of Bacchus were being accomplished. Were 
we to .give a literal account of these images, and the 
automaton machinery by which the obscene shaped 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 187 

god was made to imitate life and motion, it would 
not fail to offend ; we therefore desist, fearing that we 
have already said too much ; and yet the truth should 
not be hidden on matters of this description more 
than on others, and especially when the manners and 
religions of the ancients of mankind are concerned. 
In such cases, if timidity is allowed to conquer truth, 
how is truth to be known ? Even the Scriptures do 
not hesitate to state facts of the worst description, 
relative to the negro race, and in language of the 
most honest character ; we therefore feel that duty, 
in relation to the truth, respecting the aim of this 
work, must, and ought to prevail. Moreover, if a 
writer is not allowed plainly to state facts, in the best 
manner he can, on subjects of this kind, which re- 
late to the history of the human race in the early 
times of the globe, and respecting the religion of 
those ages, how is virtue and vice to be contrasted ? 
How is the religion of God incarnate to be exhibited, 
as being iniinitely better in its influences upon our 
race, except by comparison and the exhibition of 
facts 1 

Jezebel, the worst woman ever heard of in the 
annals of mankind, the wife of Ahab, one of the 
kings of Israel, not of Judea, \vas a negro woman, 
the daughter of Ethball, king of Zidonia. The 
Zidonians were of the same race with the Tyrians, 
so often spoken of in the Scriptures as being the in- 
habitants of Tyre and Zidon. Sidonius was one 
of the sons of Canaan, who was the son of Ham, 
and, according to Josephus, built the city Sidonius, 
or Zidon, which was thus named after and in honor 



188 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

of its founder. This city was adjacent to the king- 
dom of Israel, of which Ethball, the father of Jezebel, 
the wife of Ahab, was king, and proves Jezebel to 
have been a negress ; because her father was a king 
of a negro people, descended from Ham by the line- 
age of Canaan, and Canaan's son, Sidonius. 

That this Ethball, the father of Jezebel, was king 
of Sidon at the time Ahab was king of Israel, is 
shown from 1 Kings xvi, 31, which reads as follows: 
"And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing 
for him [Ahab] to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the 
son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daugh- 
ter of Ethball, king of Zidon, and went and served 
Baal, and worshiped him." 

Baal was one of the gods of the negro Canaan- 
ites, but what his shape was is not known. Jezebel 
being a heathen of the worst description, and a wo- 
man of great impudence and boldness of character, 
as well as exceedingly beautiful, as a negress, capti- 
vated the vitiated imagination of Ahab by her wiles 
and fascinations, and became queen of the kingdom 
of Israel. Having achieved this, and united the 
house of her father with the renowned race of the 
Jews, she became anxious that her gods and religion 
should be honored by the king, her husband, and his 
people, thinking thereby to increase the glory of her 
father's house and kingdom, which had been shorn 
down, and eclipsed of its ancient extent and great- 
ness by the wars and victories of the Jews during 
many hundred years, as well as to extend the fame 
of her lascivious and darling religion. 

In order to accomplish this, she had temples built 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 189 

with the consent of the king, her husband, in which 
were celebrated the intoxicating rites of prostitution 
by the ministry of a great multitude of pagan priests 
of her own country. As connected with the celebra- 
tion of the rites of the Zidonian religion, she caused 
certain images to be manufactured in the form of 
Priapuses, which were fabled monsters, bred in the 
brains of an idolatrous priesthood, having the human 
shape from the waist upward ; below the waist there 
was the form of a bull, or a he-goat — with othei 
members — the shame of heathenism. By wiles of 
this description, she seduced Ahab the king, and with 
hi?n vast multitudes of the subjects of his kingdom, 
the Israelites, to the worship of the Zidonian Venus 
sometimes called, in the Scriptures, Astarta. 

She persuaded her husband to build a house, or a 
great temple, in a forest, where she had an image 
made of a standing tree, fashioned after the likeness 
above described — a priapus, as the Jewish Rabbi re- 
late. This image was consecrated by her ministers 
as the tutelar divinity, or guardian of the woods and 
vineyards. That idol was like one that was made 
and worshiped by another woman of those times, 
who was of the same principles with Jezebel. This 
woman's name was Maacha, who was the queen 
mother of Asa, one of the kings of Judah, who reign- 
ed but a little time before Ahab was king of Israel. 
She was doubtless an acquaintance of Jezebel, being 
an adult woman when Jezebel was but young, or be- 
fore she was married to Ahab. 

Respecting this image made by Maacha, the moth- 
er of Asa, Rabbi Solomon, a Jewish commentator 



190 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



on the writings of the Old Testament, says the idol 
or image of queen Maacha was a horrible statue, 
made in a state of entire nakedness, with the sign 
of the mascuhne sex of great proportions, which she 
admired daily, in the sight of all men, as a religious 
rite, like the Egyptian women, to her public shame, 
at which the people laughed and wondered. See 1 
Kings XV, 11-13, on this subject, as follows: "And 
Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, 
as did David. He took away the Sodomites out of 
the land, and removed all the idols his father had 
made. And he also removed Maacha, his mother, 
even her he removed from being queen, because she 
had made an idol in a grove ; and Asa destroyed the 
idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron." 

Adam Clarke, in commenting on this passage, as 
above, says that the image spoken of there was a 
Priapus, a creature half man and half bull, or half 
he-goat, or some other dumb beast ; and that it was 
worshiped with leivd rites, which agrees with the 
statements of Rabbi Solomon, in the essence of the 
thing, though the language of Clarke is not so bold 
on the subject as is the communication of Rabbi 
Solomon. 

It is evident, from the Scriptures and ancient his- 
tory, that the whole land of old Canaan, and the ne- 
gro countries elsewhere, such a Egypt, Lybia, Ethio- 
pia, and all Africa besides, were filled with the signs, 
jmintings, and pictures of lewdness, as well as with 
sculptured and molten images, of both male and fe- 
male human beings, and of monsters, half human 
and half animal, especially among the nations of Ca- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 191 

naan. By such means, the grosser passions of hu- 
man nature were contmually excited to disorder, vio- 
lence, and confusion. Out of this influence arose all 
kinds of extravagant behavior, tending to the cor- 
ruption of the manners of mankind. 

That such 7oas the fact in Canaan, is shown from 
Numbers xxxiii, 51, 52, where Moses is charged by 
the Divine power, as follows : " Speak unto the chil- 
dren of Israel, and say unto them : When ye are 
passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, theii ye 
shall drive out all of the inhabitants of the land from 
before you, and destroy all their pictures, and all 
their onolten images^ and quite pluck down all their 
high places." From this scripture there can be no 
doubt but the images, as well as the pictures, there 
alluded to, were all of a piece ; having been so fash- 
ioned as to exhibit sights of the most obscene descrip- 
tion, placed in their houses by the way side, and 
even in their religious temples or houses of worship, 
presenting every where before the eyes of the people, 
male and female, young and old, the objects of their 
adoration and delight. 

Such a state of things was entirely resistless in 
their influence, especially on the negro population, 
and but barely overcome by the severities and high 
inducements of a spiritual, and more refined, reason- 
able, and mental religion, which was that of the 
Jews. It was the impure and seducing rites, as well 
as the pictures and images of the pagan worship of 
all the negro countries in Africa, as well as the rem- 
nants of the Canaanitish tribes, who yet remained in 
the land of Judea, or old Palestine, which so often 



192 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

misled the people of the twelve tribes from truth, and 
the right ways of the Hebrew religion. And al- 
though at the time we are now speaking of, it was 
over thirteen hundred years from the date of the 
curse of Noah, yet we find the abandoned race of 
Ham, holding on their way of wickedness, their orig- 
inal character, every where combating the virtuous 
and self-denying religion of Moses. 

The negro nations of those ages, appear to have 
acted as bad as they could, and to have injured man- 
kind in morals all that was possible, as if they were 
mdeed revenging themselves on God, because of the 
curse of Noah, as Nimrod, the grand-son of Ham, 
threatened to do, because he drowned the world [as 
Josephus says, book 1, chap, iv, p. 19], and was par- 
ticularly acted out, by Jezebel and her great multi- 
tude of negro priests and votaries, in the midst of 
the Jewish tribes. 

But this Jezebel came finally to a fearful end ; for 
when Jehu came to the throne of Israel, and imme- 
diately after the death of Ahab, he caused her to be 
cast headlong from the window of an upper room of 
the palace, out of Avhich she but a moment before 
had looked, having tired her head and painted her 
face to disguise her negro complexion, and if possi- 
ble thereby to seduce the new king, Jehu. But in 
this she failed. In that horrid fall, she was so 
bruised and broken, that she lay as one that was 
dead, when the furious Jehu rode over her with his 
war horse, stamping her down on the pavements, 
where she expired, wallowing in her own blood. 

Immediately, as it had been foretold by Elijah, the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



193 



Prophet, fifteen years before [1 Kings xxi, 23], the 
dogs came and devoured her, all but her feet, the 
palms of her hands, and her head : see 2 Kings, ix, 
35. On this subject, respecting the parts of her body 
which the dogs refused to eat, the Jewish Rabbi have 
made, says Adam Clarke, some very singular re- 
marks, from which we gather a few particulars rel- 
ative to the private character of this queen of prosti- 
tutes, as follows : 

The reason [say these Jewish Rabbi] the dogs left 
the parts of her body spoken of above, was because, 
in her festal dances in the house of her gods, which 
was built in a grove, she used to get down on all 
fours, in imitation of a beast, and in this attitude 
would caper and leap about, being disrobed, while 
the multitude of her priests and the worshipers look- 
ed on. During such performances, she would move 
her head from one side to the other, in a gay and 
wanton manner, for a purpose not proper to describe. 
She was no doubt [says Adam Clarke] guilty of the 
foulest actions, almost too bad to be believed. 

The temple of Baal, in the grove which Ahab built 
for his negro queen, was occupied by no less than 
four hundred and fifty priests, and the ^e???-/^/^, anoth- 
er vast building, but not in the woods, was occupied 
by four hundred more — amounting in all to eight hun- 
dred and fifty lusty negro ministers, of the whorish 
religion of the Zidonians, the people of Jezebel. 
This great multitude of priestly dignitaries were all 
put to the sword, at the suggestion of the Prophet Eli- 
jah, under the authority of Ahab, as the law of Mo- 
ses required respectijig idolaters, at the time of the 



194 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

noted debate on theology between Elijah and the 
Baalites, when God himself answered by fire to end 
the dispnte. See 1 Kings xviii, 38. 

That those priests of Baal were black oncn, is 
shown not only from their having been of the same 
people with Jezebel, but also from the appellation 
given them by the Jews, who called them in derision 
{cemarim, from camar), the black priests of Baal. 
See Clarke's comment on 2 Kings, xxiii, 5. That 
those priests of Baal, called by the Targums, camar, 
or the black priests, were not thus called on account 
of their wearing black vestments, as Dr. Clarke has 
supposed, but because they were actually of black 
complexions — as it is well known that in all ages 
among pagan nations of the old world, the priests of- 
ficiating at their altars of sacrifice, were always dress- 
ed in ivhite — in imitation, no doubt, of the priests of 
the Hebrews — which was a sign of jniriti/, dignity, 
and lioliness. 

It follows, therefore, that the Jews called them 
black priests of Baal, because they were black, and 
for no other reason. In this chapter, just quoted, if 
the reader desire it, he can find the names of several 
of the negro gods of those ages, and also in 1 Kings 
xi, 5, 7, whose horrid worship infested the whole of 
mankind ; as it was from this people a knowledge of 
idolatry was derived, to the whole Greek and Ro- 
man world, as well as in the most early times imme- 
diately after the flood, to the myriads of the Indies, 
and to the Jews and other nations of the earth. 

SuccoTH Benoth, a Hebrew phrase, meaning 
tents of prostitutes, was the name of one of th'e negro 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE, 195 

gods, long before the time of Christ, which name sig- 
nified the " tabernacle of the daughters," or of the 
young virgins, at whose temple they were inducted 
into the rites and mysteries practiced in the worship 
of these obscenely formed images, by the prostitution 
of their persons. 

Herodotus gives the following account of the 
Succoth-Benoth rites. Every young woman of the 
country, where the image was adored, was obliged, 
while yet a virgin, to visit the temple once, where she 
was to be humbled, by the first man who should 
chance to fancy her. 

From these accoimts it does appear, that the black 
nations of those ages, waged a universal and a per- 
petual war upon chastity, seeming to have been de- 
termined to expel from the face of the earth, all ideas 
of such a thing. To effect this, they bent all the 
powers of civil and religious influence against it, 
making the possession thereof a cri?ne, to be punish- 
ed with death, inasmuch as they who refused or neg- 
lected to be thus humbled, at the temple, and in 
the presence of the idol, were counted guilty of her- 
esp, and were held as infidels and contemners of the 
gods. 

Herodotus further says, that in his own time, B. C. 
450, there was a city in Numidia, which was on the 
upper regions of the Nile, in Africa, that was called 
^^iccave^lia, a name signifying prostitution, to which 
the young women were compelled to resort by law, 
to earn their marriage dower. This custom, says 
Herodotus, was brought from PhcEuicia, which was 
the country of old Canaan, peopled as we have often 



196 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

said before, from the very beginning after the flood, 
by negro nations. 

JosEPHus, in his Antiquities of tb.e Jews, speaks of 
the madness of the Eo^yptians after women, in the 
place where he relates the story of Abraham's going 
down to Egypt with his wife Sarai: Gen. xii, 10, 20. 
By this it is seen that in those ancient ages, strangers 
of other nations and distant parts of the earth, consid- 
ered it a dangerous thing to travel in Egypt in com- 
pany with women. So notorious were they in this 
particular, even among themselves, that when the 
rich and noble lost by death, any /ema/e relative who 
had been reputed as handsome and pleasing to look 
upon, when living, they dare not send the body to 
the embalmers until they had been dead several days, 
lest their persons should become the objects of viola- 
tion. See Clarke's comment on Gen. 1, 2. Is there 
any thing which can be imagined by the human 
mind, more awful and repulsive than the above trait, 
of far more than brutal depravity. 

When Herodotus traveled in Africa, among the 
various tribes of Egypt, Lybia, and Ethiopia, he says 
that he found the negro inhabitants living like ani- 
mals, with respect to chastity. The following are 
his words on the subject : '-Among all these nations 
whom I have specified, the communication between 
the sexes is like that of the beasts— open and unre- 
strained." Was tliis induced by slavery, as aboli- 
tionists say it is in America? 

That those nations of whom he speaks were really 
the negroes of Africa, Herodotus says they were all 
of the same complexion with the Ethiopians, being 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 197 

extremely black and curly headed. At their mar- 
riages, it is a custom every where among them, says 
the same author, for all the guests to enjoy the bride, 
the first night, who bring accordingly suitable pres^ 
ents, by which means they commence their family 
capacity, or house-keeping. In one tribe, he fomid 
it a custom for the wives to make use of a certain 
mark, or sign on their limbs, to denote the number 
of times they had favored other gallants than the 
lawful one after marriage ; the husband valuing 
them according to the number of these tokens, as 
they were the evidences of their wives' popular per- 
sonal charms. 

This is a dreadful picture of the negro race, in that 
one particular, and were it not for the restraints of the 
Christian religion, and the salutary laws enacted un- 
der its influence in America, and other countries in 
Christendom, they, as a people, if left to themselves, 
would be guilty of the same things as anciently, for 
their natures are ever the same. 

Another tribe, of whom this Grecian author speaks, 
who lived in the same uru'estrained manner, in Afri- 
ca, assembled every three moons in a grand conclave, 
v/hen all the children born during that term of time, 
were examined as to their looks, countenances, and 
shapes ; and the men they most resembled were 
obliged to father and take care of them, there being 
no other way to ascertain the parents of their chil- 
dren. Herodotus, pages 170, 235, 236, 237. 

It is intimated by Livy, vol, 1, book xxi, p. 369, 
that the Carthagenian generals were guilty of the 
practice of Sodomy, and that even Hannibal, who 



198 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

in his youth was very handsome for a black man, 
participated in the same horrible custom. 

It is said, respecting the negroes of the West India 
Islands, who are all of African descent, that they con- 
sider any restraint laid on their promiscuous sexual 
intercourse, a hardship of the most grievous and op- 
pressive nature, seeming to center all their happiness 
in enjoyments of that description. From this fact, 
it seems that from the time of Herodotus, which is 
more than two thousand years ago, the negro race, 
whether in Africa or the West Indies, whether under 
the influence of unrestrained paganism, or the heal- 
ing balm of Christianity, are ever the same gross, 
brutal, fierce, sensual and devilish chracters, as a 
people, in reference to sexual commerce. 

Bamberger's account of the Africans, who we have 
before quoted in this v/ork, accords with all we have 
said above, from whom we take the following in ad- 
dition. This man sa^^s that he fell in with a tribe, 
who lived beyond the limits of the Cafl'rees, who 
were called by themselves, Muhotians. While with 
this tribe, as he and a negro man, the son-in-law of 
the chief of the krall, and with whom he then was 
remaining, were busy in gathering dry wood, in the 
edge of a wilderness, the former made Bamberger a 
proposal of Sodomy. But as Bamberger refused, the 
African nearly murdered him, being a much, stronger 
man, and yet Bamberger made his escape from the 
woolly-headed monster. While at this krall, the old 
chief, the father-in-law of the negro above spoken of, 
took Bamberger, on a certain day, with him to an- 
other pa^t of the same wilderjiess, where he was 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 199 

shown a heap of sand and earth several feet high. 
On opening this heap, as directed by the chief, he 
found the bodies of five white men, who had been 
killed by stabbing. He soon learned of the old man, 
that the five men had belonged to the crew of a ves- 
sel which had but recently been wrecked on the 
coast of the Atlantic, and who had been cai-ried in- 
land by a party of blacks, belonging to the Muhotian 
tribe. This tribe had been set upon by a party of 
Kantoriajis, in order to take the prisoners out of their 
hands, for the express purpose of practicing Sodomy 
upon them, because they were white, and, in the eyes 
of those miserable beings, exceedingly handsome. But 
in the aflray, the white men were all killed, and bu- 
ried there in the sand, rather than submit to be thus 
degraded in their own eyes. During this talk with 
the filthy old chief, Bamberger told him about the 
abuse he had received from his son-in-law, because 
he would not submit to the same thing ; at which the 
old child of darkness and paganism only laughed 
most heartily, as at an occurrence of the most trivial 
character. Vol. i, p. 146. 

After this, as Bamberger was prosecuting his dread- 
ful journey, over jagged mountains and dreary plains 
of sand and morasses, he fell into the hands of a 
tribe called Kionians, whose king was an absolute 
despot ; having the power to appropriate to his own 
use whatever he pleased, and of whom his subjects 
dare not complain. Whenever he would, he took 
the wives and daughters of his people, who were 
very numerous, to his own couch, so that he had 
eight hundred women subject to his pleasure. The 



200 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

place of liis district or region of dwelling, was in the 
caves of certain mountains, called the Kong ?noim- 
tains, and adjacent to the river Niger, not a great dis- 
tance from the Atlantic, Avhich empties into thai 
ocean at Liberia, in north lat. G°. Vol. ii, p. 103. 

RoLLiN says, that abominable lewdness, as stated 
by Tragus Pompeius, a Roman historian, was the 
great and predominant vice of all Africa. Vol. i, p. 
375. On a subject like this, or any other, touching 
the character of the natives of Africa, the Romans 
had the most unbounded opportunity to know them 
in those ages, because they had a great empire in that 
country, which they wrested out of the' hands of the 
Carthagenians, who had conquered the country some 
hundred years before, who were also a black people 
from Phoenicia, of wliom we shall have something to 
remark iiereafter. 

The facts set forth in this section of the work, are, 
after all, but little items in the ocean of evidence that 
might be adduced, proving this people, the race of 
Ham, to be a people who, in all ages, have been more 
sensual and animal in their inclinations, than are the 
races of either the red or white man ; which fact is 
an evidence of no small magnitude, of their real and 
universal mental inferiority. 

This remark, we know, may be considered as se- 
vere, and yet we do not see how we can make any 
abatement, except to say that, happily, there have 
been, in all ages, individuals of the neo^ro race, both 
as it relates to talent of the medium scale, and 
amiableness of character, who should be excepted 
from the great mass of the countless myriads of the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 201 

blacks, as good men, and ornaments to society where 
they hved. 

Having thus far in this section, taken some notice 
of the national and personal character of the Ethio- 
pian race, we shall change the subject, in order to 
I make some inquiries respecting their mental abilities, 

I without aiming to disparage them in the least degree 

< wrongfully, being desirous only to ascertain the truth 

respecting them. 

If the Supreme Being has seen fit to endow this 
race with a less quantum of intellectual faculties, and 
with less attractive powers and persons, in all re- 
spects, than he has the white race — what then ? are 
we, therefore, to undervalue them on this account ? 
We think not, as all God's works are good and proper 
in their proper places, but not out of them. In this 
way, and in no other, shall we be able to appreciate 
the wonderful harmony of nature, by which is dem- 
onstrated both the power and wisdom of the Creator, 
in ordering the affairs of the universe, and the inhabi- 
tants of the globe. 

It is impossible to extract from substances, more 
than is contained in the nature of such substances, 
or to elevate by its own weight, water above its ori- 
gin or fountain head. So of the negro race, though 
fondled and petted by abolitionists, yet this will 
amount to nothing, except an exhibition of the ne- 
gro's real natural imbecilities of mind, and the need 
he is in of help, as the great conservative powers by 
which the white race have elevated themselves are 
not given to the people of the race of Ham. But for 
not cultivating the one talent, which was given them 



202 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

by the Creator, they are placed under the ban of a 
judicial decree, exactly suited to their moral charac- 
ters on the earth. 

As erst before the flood when Satan reigned, 
The earth with violence and death was stained ; 
The waters therefore came, and swept away 
The whole blasphemous host of vile array. 
So, in the land of Ham, old Canaan's coast, 
Where Sodomy and crime were black men's boast^ 
The vengeful arm of God — the Jewish sword — 
Drove them headlong out, both tribe and horde. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 203 



NINTH SECTION, 

Pretended mental equality of the negro race with white men refut- 
ed, as held by abolitionits — Comparative view of the races, as to 
their doings in the world — Proofs that the ancient Egyptians, nor 
any of the negro nations, were not the authors of either arts or sci- 
ences — Proofs that the arts and sciences, comprehending a knowl- 
edge of letters, were known before the flood, and in the house of 
Noah, and by the first patriarchs — Curious discoveries made in 
the foundations of the tower of Babel by Sir Robert Ker Porter — 
A knowledge of letters since the flood derived from the first pa- 
triarchs, and not from the Phoenician blacks — But little advances 
made in architecture by the first Egyptians, till after Solomon — 
The pyramids built by the shepherd kings, a race of copper color- 
ed men of the blood of Shem, and not by the blacks of Egypt — 
For thousands of years the tribes of Africa have made no advances 
in civilization — The reasons of this — Works of the Canaanites, as 
it related to architecture, derived from the Euphrates, or the ex 
ample of the Shemites, and the people of Japheth — During the 
whole history of negro Carthage, they made no advances in 
literature — Rapine, plunder, and dealing in slaves, being their 
trade — Architectural works of the races of Shem and Japheth 
long before the tower was built, or the negroes exit to Africa — 
Near resemblance of the Simla race as the ourang-outang, and 
many of the Africans — Respecting their appetites — Cannibalism, 
&c., in all ages — Insensibilities of the negroes to bodily pain — 
Meanness of the negro spirit — Their cruelties to their slaves — With 
many other curious matters. 

The labor of the following pages which shall oc- 
cupy this section, will be to ascertain whether the ne- 
gro race, properly so distinguished, in an unamalgam- 
ated character, are naturally equal with the other 



204 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

races of men, the red and the white, in point of intel- 
lectual faculties. That they really are thus equal, is 
vehemently contended for by all abolitionists of both 
Europe and America, some even holding them supe- 
rior, while anti-ahoUtionists resist this opinion as a 
fallacy. An appeal to direct, and also to circumstan- 
tial evidence, in relation to the subject, is the only 
way to decide it. 

Abolitionists are sure that the only reason of their 
present amazing inferiority arises wholly from the 
influence of the treatment of the white nations to- 
ward them. Remove this say they, educate them, 
and give them a fair chance in the world, then it will 
soon be seen, that, as a people, th%y are equally tal- 
ented with the other races of the human family. 

But here, at the very outset of the inquiry, it is de- 
sirable to ascertain how it came to pass that it was 
not the negro man who aspired to the paramount con- 
dition, noiD and always enjoyed by the white race. 
If the people of Ham were originally equal, as to 
mental faculties, with the other races, how came they 
in their present degraded condition ? How has it 
happened that the negro race has not attained in the 
world to the very same condition the white race now 
occupy, and the white% fallen into the condition of 
the blacks, seeing they are, as is contended, equal 
with each other? or, if this is true, why are they not 
alike? There must be some great reason for this. 
It is asserted by abolitionists, that the negro race were, 
in the first ages after the flood, the authors of all the 
arts and sciences which obtained in ancient Egypt, 
and that fiiom these arose, as from a germ, the pres- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE 



205 



ent lights of mankind. If this was true, we ask how 
they, the authors, iu their posterity, have lost that en- 
viable position ? How has it come to pass that the 
same power which prompted them to so many, and 
to so great improvements, has not been able to sus- 
tain itself? Could this be shown to have been a fact, 
respecting the negro race, it would prove an anoma- 
ly indeed, and yet would secure but little in their fa- 
vor, on account of the horrid retrograde they have 
made in the world. 

But we affirm that they were not the authors of 
either arts or sciences, as understood in those times, 
which, according to history, as well as the scriptures, 
were cultivated in ancient Africa. We sustain thU 
affirmation, by showing that the Egyptians, and all 
other people of those ages, received and carried with 
them a knowledge of the arts and sciences, as under- 
stood at that era of the world, from the house of 
Noah, 

That letters were known in the house of Noah is 
absolutely certain, deduced from many circumstances, 
and of necessity to all the people, or to heads of tribes 
and communities for the first iQ\Y hundred years, im- 
mediately after the flood. One of these circum- 
stances, or evidences, arises from the late discoveries 
made in the foundations of the ancient tower of Be- 
lus, or Babel, as it is commonly called, as well as 
from the architectural works of the people of Shem 
and Japheth before the tower was built. 

Sir Robert Ker Porter, under the patronage of the 
government of England, went to the country of an- 
cient Persia, Tartary, Armenia, Chaldea, and Baby- 



206 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



Ion on the Euphrates, in the years 1820 and 1823, on 
a tour of antiquarian discovery. While on the Eu- 
phrates, he found, as reported in his work, the an- 
cient site of the temple of Belus, or tower of Babel, 
the same spoken of by Moses in the book of Genesis, 
whi^h was built by Nimrod the Grandson of Ham. 
[*S'ee Plate], At the spot where the tower stood, 
which was built only about one hundred years after 
the flood, he found a vast heap of rubbish, forming ^ 
great mound, or elevation, overgrown with brambles. 

Being desirous of examining the interior of this 
mighty mound, he procured the aid of several of the 
people living there, to dig along its skirts, wlfen there 
\itks found, at some little depth, the original brick, 
forming the upper stratas of the foundation of the 
structure. The bricks thus discovered were about 
one foot square by three inches thick, and were cov- 
ered on both sides with arrow-headed characters, 
having, in many respects, a resemblance to the pres- 
ent Hebrew letters. 

They were not hieroglyphics, or the pictures of 
creatures or things, but were evidently letters, or 
signs of ideas, placed in due order, as letters are now 
arranged, running in parallel lines across the bricks. 
There were instances, however, where those charac- 
ters were set in perpendicular lines, or at right angles 
with the others. That they w^ere letters, is as evi- 
dent as that any of the ancient characters of the He- 
brew, Greek, Persian, or Chinese languages, are let- 
ters. 

On these bricks was written, no doubt, the history 
of the tower, and the reasons of its being erected, the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 207 

Story of the flood, the ark, and of the nations before 
the flood, the original creation, <fcc. It appears that 
the letters were formed on the insides of the molds 
in which the bricks were made, the characters being 
raised out above the general level of the face of the 
mold, so that when impressed on the clay before it 
was dried for burning, would cause fac similes in the 
face of the brick, and thus be preserved from being 
broken when laid in great masses on top of each oth- 
er. It may have been, however, that the letters were 
made by merely pressing down on each brick, as it 
came from a smooth mold, the type of a letter carved 
out of wood, and thus produce the same effect as if 
cast in a mold. 

Specimens of these letters may be seen in the work 
alluded to above, in great numbers, and are worthy 
of the attention of the curious. The work is in the 
State Library. 

That letters were known before the flood, appears 
also from the fact that music was taught and under- 
stood among the antediluvians: see Gen. iv, 21, 
where it is said that one Jubal, a descendant of the 
family of Cain, was the father [instructor] of all 
such as handled the harp and the organ. If music 
was taught, then of necessity they must have had a 
knowledge of characters of a competent description, 
by the means of which they recorded their music, or 
the science could not have been alluded to, as it is by 
Moses. If musical characters were then in use, of 
which there can be no doubt, then, of necessity, let- 
ters were also in use, or the rules of such as taught 
music could not have been systematically accom- 



208 ORIGINj CHARACTER, AND 

plislied. Music being thus understood by the antedi- 
hivians, it is an evidence that they possessed a high 
condition of refinement, as a general knowledge of 
this accomplishment is considered the 7ie plus ultra 
of good breeding in refined society of every age. To 
carry out this belief, we are aided by Moses in anoth- 
er respect, who says, Gen. iv, 22, that the people of 
that age, going back to the lifetime of Adam, had a 
knowledge of the manufacture of brass and iron, and 
that they were also agriculturists, as well as shep- 
herds and herdsmen. It is said by the Jewish Rabbi 
that letters and writing were invented by Seth, the 
third son of Adam. — Watsoji^s Theological Diction- 
ari/, p. 856. 

With the knowledge of such things, can it be pos- 
sible that the antediluvians were not a civilized, la- 
boring, trading, agricultural, mechanical, commercial, 
and scientific race? However many tribes, nations, 
kingdoms, and governments, they may have been 
divided into around the whole globe, yet a knowl- 
edge of such refinements is stated by Moses to have 
certainly been in their possession. Of all this, is it 
possible that Noah, being born six hundred years be- 
fore the flood, could have been ignorant, seeing he 
was a good man, and improved his mind, therefore, 
in every possible way. 

Could he have planned and built the ark without 
a knowledge of geometry, which also supposes the 
existence and use of arithmetical characters ? Ham, 
Nimrod, and his coadjutors, must have had a knowl- 
edge oi geometry, as well as o^ letters, or they could 
not have projected, nor have built the tower, and the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 209 

great cities ErccJi, Acad, and Calneh, in the land of 
Shinar, on the river Euphrates, as Moses says they 
did. Gen. x, 10. 

From whom did Abraham, who was born only 
two hundred and ninety-two years after the flood, de- 
rive a knowledge of arithmetic and astronomy, if not 
from the house of Noah? That Abraham had this 
knowledge is stated by Josephus, in his book of Jew- 
ish Antiquities. If Abraham had this knowledge, 
then it is clear that the Syrians, of which people 
Abraham was a member, also possessed it, who, with 
all the first nations immediately after the flood, de- 
rived it, as well as all other knowledge, from the 
house and members of the family of Noah, who 
brought it with them from beyond the flood in writ- 
ten characters. 

That Abraham was an educated man, is evident 
from the character he sustained among his country- 
men, the Chaldeans, or the ancient Syrians, and as 
the head and patriarch of the Hebrew or Jewish peo- 
ple, as well as from the business which he transacted 
with the Egyptians, Canaanites, and other countries 
of that age. If Abraham, then, was an educated man, 
and v/as versed in all the learning of that age, which 
was cultivated by the Chaldeans, who, doubtless, at 
that era, and upward, toward the age of the ending 
of the flood, was composed of both white and red 
men, till such times as they were separated to their 
respective regions ; then were also the patriarchs, who 
were before Abraham's time, such as Arphaxad, Sa- 
lah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, and Terah, the 
father of Abraham, as well as iShem, who was Mel- 

9* 



210 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

chisedek, and the progenitor of all the patriarchs 
above named. 

From this state of the case, it is not hard to con- 
ceive that the Egyptian and Canaanite negroes, who 
were the very first people of those countries, received 
all their knowledge of letters, of agriculture, of ge- 
ometry, aritlwietic, and astronomy, from the great 
and common source, the house of Noah, and the suc- 
ceeding patriarchs. The opinion, therefore, that the 
Phoenician negroes were the inventors of letters is no 
authority. 

What though Cadmus, an Egyptian, as it is said, 
carried the knowledge of letters into Greece first of 
all, at a very remote age, which we shall not dispute, 
yet this does not prove that the Egyptians invented 
them, as Cadmus, with the rest of his countrymen, 
derived that knowledge from the common source — 
the family of Noah. Whether this Cadmus, who is 
celebrated as the author of letters among the ancient 
Greeks, and the succeeding ages of the world, was a 
Phoenician or an Egyptian negro, is far from being 
certain ; for we learn from Josephus's Jewish Antiq- 
uities, book 8, that one of the sons of Ishmael, the 
son of Abraham, was named Cadmus, and was as 
likely to have been the Cadmus of ancient history, 
who carried letters into Greece, as any other man. 

As to architecture of the magnificent and exquisite 
descriptions, the Egyptians made but little advances 
till the age of Solomon, previous to which time their 
buildings were of the most common order, made of 
brick, both buirit and dried; even the cities of the 
time of Joseph were of this description, useful and 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 211 

spacious, but not approaching to the magnificent. 
In all Africa, says the " Universal Traveler," page 
499, there does not now exist among the negroes any 
architecture, above that of mere huts made of stakes 
driven in the ground, and plastered inside and out ; 
of this description are their best buildings, shaped like 
bee-hives, conically. The rest are mere dens made 
of mud and sticks, or holes in the ground. These 
are the descendants of the mighty Egyptians, the 
Lybians, and Ethiopians, whose lofty temples once 
filled Africa, if we are to believe abolitionists ; but it 
is all an error ; they were the authors of the architect- 
ural works of those ages no further than as slaves 
and laborers. The pyramids, which were built of 
hewn stone, was not the work of the woolly heads of 
Egypt, but of the shepherd kings called Ciithea, fiom 
Arabia and the Persian Gulf, north of Egypt, who 
held, by conquest, for more than two hundred years, 
the kingdoms of Egypt, during which time they en- 
slaved the whole mass of the aboriginal people, when 
thfe pyramids, and many other great works, were 
built by slaves, at the dictation of the Hyc-sos, or 
shepherd kings. — Watson. 

This was done ]yrlor to the time of Joseph's being 
sold into Egypt, The Hyc-sos kings were of the 
Ahrahajnic race, being descendants of his sons by 
Keturah (see Gen. xxv), who, settling eastward from 
Chaldea, where Abraham lived before he went to Ca- 
naan, expelled the children of Ham, or the Cushites, 
from the country, who, first of all, after the fall of 
the tower, settled there, on which account the country 
was alluded to by Moses (Gen. ii, 13), by the name of 



212 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

Ethiopia, through which the Glhon flowed. This 
people, being thus expelled, went to Africa, and 
founded another kingdom, which also was called 
Ethiopia. 

Now, on this account, the Hyc-sos race were called 
Cushite Shepherds, namely, because they had con- 
quered and dwelt in the country of the expelled Cush- 
ite race, who were of the house of Hani. These 
were the people who conquered Egypt at so early a 
period, and built the great works of that country 
above named. 

The Cushites, as stated by Richard Watson, in his 
Historical Dictionary, p, 282, were driven out of their 
Asiatic possessions, along the gulf of Persia, and 
along the northern side of the Red Sea, by the Ish- 
maelites and the Midianites, both of the lineage of 
Abraham. 

The descendants of Abraham were always prone to 
rearing vast herds of cattle, by which means, in a 
great measure, they acquired wealth and power. 
Such were the shepherd kings, who, for a time, tyr- 
ranized over Egypt, as above shown. It was for this 
very reason, that all shepherds were an abomination 
to the Egyptians, in the days of Joseph, the Hebrew, 
as stated Gen. xlvi, 34, for they remembered the cruel- 
ties of the red skinned shepherd kings. 

From all points, therefore, it is evident, that the 
original negroes of the Nile, the swarthy woolly 
heads of the race of Ham, did not profit by a knowl- 
edge of letters, or any other knowledge of the house 
of Noah, above inere agriculture, till such times as 
other races of men, such as Ishmaelites, Midianites, 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 213 

and Chaldeans, all of the race of Shem and Abraham, 
had begun to njingle with them : so that by the tune 
of Saul, David, and Solomon, the character of Egypt 
in relation to enterprise, had become vastly changed 
from her ancient stupidity ; from whence we date 
what may be denominated the architectural age of 
Egypt. 

At a very early period, thousands of the Ishmaelite 
race settled in Africa, by invasion, along the head 
waters of the Nile, in Ethiopia, mingling more and 
more through Egypt, down toward the mouths of that 
river ; this is a matter of history. Watson, 282. 
This is evident also from the mummies brought from 
that country, which were doubtless embalmed as long 
ago as in the days of David and Solomon, and per- 
haps as far back as when the Hebrews were in 
Egypt ; all of which, except now and then out, are 
not of the negro race, but of a red or copper colored 
people, with long straight hair, and other character- 
istics not belonging to the genuine Cushite, or race of 
Ham. 

From this circumstance, it is shown that the ruling 
people of Egypt, in those ages, were not the native 
negroes, as none but the more wealthy were able to 
bear the expense of embalming their dead. " That 
a race (says Professor Lawrence, p. 294) ever devoted, 
within the period embraced by authentic history, to 
slavery, or to an existence not much better, and pos- 
sessing, under the most favorable" circumstances, only 
the rudiments of the common arts, and the most im- 
perfect social institutions, should have occupied, in re- 
motest antiquity, undertakings which astonish us 



214 ORIGIN, CEIAHACTER, AND 

even tioio by their grandeur, and prove so great a 
progress in civilization and social life, in arts and 
sciences — that they should have subsequently lost all 
this siirprising progress, and never have exhibited the 
smallest approximation to such a pre-eminence in any 
other instance, is a fact extremely difficult to explain." 

The negroes of Africa, who are the descendants of 
the Egyptians, the Lybians, and the Ethiopians, all 
the same people, the race of Ham, the first negroes, 
for thousands of years, have made no advances in 
letters, or in any way approximating thereto ; as in 
all Africa, among the negro tribes and kingdoms, not 
Sigleatn of the light of science, the precursor of which 
is the invention of letters, has appeared. Not a hie- 
roglyphic or symbol — no kind of painting, or even 
knots tied in a string, as in Peru, called quipos, to 
denote numbers, has appeared in all the vast regions, 
of Southern Africa. 

How is this ? what has induced this amazing stu- 
pidity of the native negro? In the annals of no peo- 
ple of the whole earth, can there be found evidence 
of so profound a state of ignorance and apathy, with 
respect to a desire of improvement, as among this 
people, for they have not exceeded the beasts of the 
wilderness, where they dwell, who follow the mere 
instincts of their natures. 

But in the northern parts of Africa, on account of 
the mixture of the other races with that of the negro 
blood, there has arisen more or less improvement in 
agriculture and government, which has elevated the 
negro blood a little above their native dead level of 
their degraded natures. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 215 

What though the negroes of Canaan built many- 
towns and cities in their country, such as JcbuSj Tyre^ 
Zidon, Gath, Hamath, Jericho, with m'any others, 
which Joshua and his warriors found extremely dif- 
ficult to destroy? And although before their settle- 
ment in Canaan, they built the tower of Babel, the 
cities of Acad, Erech, and Calneh, in the land of 
SJiinar, on ihe Euphrates ; yet all this, and especial- 
ly the cities last named, which were built by the ne- 
groes, before they settled in Canaan, and before the 
confusion of their language, we attribute to the first 
impetus of knowledge derived from the house of 
Noah, and kept alive by surrounding circumstances, 
the exertions of other nations — the Shemites and the 
children of Japheth. But when finally overcome and 
subdued by the superior policies of the other races, 
the negro man not possessing in himself the great 
conservative powers, which are the grand source of 
all exertions and human independence, fell, natural- 
ly by degrees, back into their native insufficiency of 
mind ; the end of which is misery, ignorance, bar- 
barism and slavery. 

During the age of their first prosperity, had they 
cultivated such mental faculties as they had, instead 
of indulging in all kinds of animal luxuries, crimes, 
murders, tyranny, lewdness, and horrid idolatries, 
they would not have gone down as they have. That 
such was the fact, respecting them, is strongly sup- 
ported by the history of Carthage, whose empire was 
coeval with the latter ages of Canaan, and with the 
very time of the glory of Egypt. This negro king- 
dom, during its whole existence, which was from the 



216 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

age of Ahab^ one of the kings of Israel, till destroyed 
by the Romans, under Scipio, about 140 years B. C, 
made no advances in literature. On this subject, 
RolUn says, p. 238, that during all the ages of their 
existence, which was about seven hundred years, they 
did not produce but four literary men, while the 
Greeks and the Romans, we will add, during the same 
space of time, filled the world with their sages, phi- 
losophers, and seats of learning, as well as with theii 
manufactories, trade and commerce. 

The great ambition of the negro Garthageniuns 
was war, plunder, rapine, and cruelty ; excluding, 
even by edicts^ the encouragement of letters and 
learning. Wherever the Greeks or Romans carried 
their conquests, they strove to better the condition of 
conquered countries, but the Carthagenians turned 
all to a howling wilderness ; or at least did not at- 
tempt to better the character of the subdued nations. 
The reason why the Carthagenians discouraged liter- 
ature by law, says Rollin, was, as they asserted, that 
it assisted men to become rogues, and to overreach 
each other. 

But this was not the reason ; it was because of 
their innate dislike to mental study and research, as 
a people ; seeking only after animal gratification, see- 
ing no beauty or advantage in a knowledge of the 
mysteries of the arts and sciences, as did the other 
races, especially the descendants of Japheth. This 
is the grand reason why the first negro nations went 
backward rather than forward from their original op- 
portunities, namely, their not having appreciated the 
value and worth of letters, moral improvement, the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 217 

science of social government, virtue, 6lc. ; and yet 
we are told that the negro man invented letters at 
first ; an idea easily refuted, by a reference to the fact, 
that letters and learning were understood in the house 
of Noah long before Ham was born. 

In relation to their commonly accredited knowledge 
of the art of building, or of architecture, in Egypt, 
is entirely preposterous. " With our present knowl 
edge (says Lawrence, page 296) of the capacity of 
negro men, and our knowledge of the state in which 
the U'hole race has remained for full twenty centuries, 
can we deem it possible that they should have achiev- 
ed such prodigies?" That the negro man in those 
ages did, unaided by the talents of others, invent and 
carry out, by his own mental energies, the great works 
of Egypt and Carthage, we wholly deny, and aver 
that it cannot be proven. 

That the knowledge of architecture, and many of 
the other arts, as well as sciences, were as well un- 
derstood, if not better, by the Chaldeans, who were 
of the race of Shem, and coeval with the negroes of 
the tower of Babel, which was long prior to the set- 
tlements of Egypt or Ethiopia, is evident from the 
notices respecting them, found in the writings of Mo- 
ses in the book of CTenesis. The settlements of Shem 
and Japheth, about the regions of the head waters 
of the Euphrates and Tigris, in ancient Persia (so 
named long afterward) and Armenia, were made all 
a hundred years before the children of Ham went 
either to Canaan or Egypt. 

It is true, however, that Ham and his people went 
down the Euphrates to the vale of Shinar, where, in 

10 



218 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



about fifty years after his leaving the country of the 
ark, with his family, they built the tower. But as 
soon as that undertaking was frustrated by the Di- 
vine power, in the confusion of their language, they 
immediately spread out in all directions : some going 
westward to the unknown region of the country call- 
ed, afterward, Canaan Phcenicia ; some southward, 
along the Persian Gulf, in Arabia, and the Red Sea, 
as well as still further south into Egypt, while some 
went south-east, along the Indian Ocean, toward the 
country now known as Hindostan ; and others re- 
mained, no doubt, in the same country, along the 
Euphrates, quite down to the sea. Here they had to 
begin aneto in all their respective regions. 

But during all this time, the children of Shemand 
Japheth, with the patriarchs born soon after the flood, 
were going forward with their pursuits, and actually 
built the great cities of Rehoboth, Calah, and Rescji, 
Genesis x, 11, 12, even before the time of the build- 
ing of the tower of Babel by the negroes, as the chil- 
dren of Shera and Japheth had nothing to do with 
that exploit. 

The numbers and the names of some of the patri- 
archs, born prior to the dispersion of the blacks from 
the project of the tower, are as follows : Arphaxad, 
Salah, Eber, and Peleg, besides four other sons of 
Shem, younger than Arphaxad, whose names were 
Elani, Ashiir, Lud, and Amram; who were each, 
and all of them, the fathers of vast multitudes, over 
whom the mighty and princely Melchisedek, or Shem, 
the son of Noah, reigned as a priest. In this man 
were concentrated, by the providence and appoint- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 219 

meat of God, the regal and sacerdotal dignities, 
as well as a knowledge of all past ages, as he 
was born more than a hundred years before the 

flood. 

Is it a supposable case, that the races of Shem and 
Japheth, under such a supervision as that of Noah 
and Melchisedek, were idle, and accomplished noth- 
ing, during all the time the negroes were busy on the 
great fiats of Shinar, and in the building of the tow- 
er? The reader will recollect that Noah lived, after 
the flood, three hundred and fifty years, and Sliem 
five hundred years ; so that during a hundred years 
or more, prior to the negroes' settlements of Canaan 
and Africa, these two great men, as well as the four 
other patriarchs, first above named, were as energet- 
ically at work in their settlements, east and north, 
as were the negroes in theirs, and that, too, without 
a loss of time, as was the case with the blacks ; for 
they lost all the time spent in the vale of Shinar, be- 
fore they were dispersed, amounting to more than a 
hundred years. 

That the race of Shem, under the advices and 
knowledge of himself and his father Noah, and con- 
comitant patriarchs, had actually grown numerous, 
and attained to power at a very early period, is evi- 
dent from the xivth chapter of Genesis. In the his- 
tory contained in that chapter, Moses gives an ac- 
count of a war waged and carried on between cer- 
tain kings of the land of Shinar, whose countries lay 
along and beyond the river Euphrates, who were the 
children of Shem, and certain kings of Canaan, ne- 
groes, and of the vale of Sodom, whose kingdoms lay 



220 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

along and near the river Jordan, places and govern- 
ments about three hundred miles apart. 

The names of the kings of iShinai', who engaged 
m this war, were Amraphel, king of Shinar; Arioch, 
king of Ellasar; Chedoi-laomar, king of Elam; and 
Tidal, king of nations. This war happened in the 
days of Abraham, about two hundred and fifty years 
after the dispersion from the tower, and about three 
hundred and seventy after the flood, when Abraham 
was about eighty years old. 

These confederate kings, from the Euphrates, were 
powerful, as we see they had held in vassalage, for 
some twelve years, certain districts of the country of 
Sodom, on the river Jordan, east of the country of 
old Canaan, although so far from the seats of the re- 
spective thrones. But the kingdoms of Sodom re- 
belled from under the rule of those eastern kings. On 
this account, the five kings of the Euphrates, with 
their troops, came the great distance of full three hun- 
dred miles overland, to reduce the people to their vas- 
salage again. 

But the sooty monarchs of Sodom, five in number, 
\vhose names are as follows, Bera, king of Sodom ; 
Birsha^ king of Gomorrah ; Shinah, king of Admah ; 
Shenieher, king of Zeboim ; and Bela, king of Zoar, 
mustered their troops and resisted their oppressors, 
but were beaten, with a terrible overthrow, in which 
defeat Lot^ the half brother of Abraham, and all he 
had, was carried away. Thus we learn, from the 
pen of Moses, how great the empire of those east- 
ern monarchs was, extending icest, even to Jordan, 
covering, at that time, more or less of the country of 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



221 



old Canaan, while to the east there Avas nothing be- 
yond them but the wilds of India and Hindostan. 

Thus far we have presented this trait of ancient 
history, merely to show, that at the very time when 
the Egyptians had been settled in the vale of the Nile, 
only about two hundred and fifty years from the 
time of the dispersion from Babel, there was then a 
mighty empire much further advanced in the arts 
and sciences (than were the Egyptians) in the coun- 
try of Euphrates ; which had its commencement long 
before even the building of Babel, and had spread on- 
ward toward the region now called China, to a great 
distance, and had been advancing for more than a 
hundred years before the negroes of the tower, or any 
part of them, had found their way to the Nile, or to 
the mountains of Canaan. 

In this eastern empire, there were no less than 
eight great cities named by Moses, which were 
Babel, Erech, Acad, and Calneh, built by the people 
of Ham, under Nimrod, before the confusion of their 
language; and then there were Nineveh, Rehoboth, 
Calah, and Resen, built by the people of Shem, quite 
as early as were the others by the people of Ham, 
who were dispossessed of them, and driven out of the 
country, by the Shemite race, into Africa. From this 
view, it is seen at once that the arts, as understood in 
that age, were known in the land of Shinar, Armenia, 
and the east, long prior to the advancement of the 
Canaanites, the Ethiopians, the Lybians, and the 
Egyptians, derived from the house of Noah, and fos- 
tered by the patriarchs of the Shemite and Japhetic 
races. 



222 ORIGIN, CHARACTERj AND 

That Abraham, the great progenitor of many of 
the nations of the eastern world, was a learned man, 
is asserted in the Avritings of several of the early 
Chaldean historians, as stated by Josephiis, book 1. 
Berosseus, a Chaldean historian, speaks of this 
Abraham, the Syrian, as being wonderfully versed 
in a knowledge of the heavenly bodies, or in astron- 
omy. Hecatus, another Chaldean writer, celebrates 
the greatness and the learning of the man Abraham, 
who, as Josephus relates, composed a book, setting 
forth the life of Abraham, by which means his name 
was well known to the ancient writers of India and 
Hindostan, To this Adam Clarke sets his seal, who 
says, that in the oriental writings in the Sanscrit lan- 
guage, frequent allusion is made to Abraham, as well 
as to Solomon hen-Doud; or, in other words, to Solo- 
mon, the son of David. 

It is said by Josephus, that Abraham carried with 
him to Egypt a knowledge of arithmetic; which is 
borne out in the fact of his seed, both the Hebrews 
and the Ishmaelites, always being in the possession 
of the science of figures. And from whom did Abra- 
ham receive this knowledge, but from Shem, or Mel- 
chisedek, the son of Noah, which came from beyond 
the flood ? 

How is it, therefore, that literary men of the latter 
ages have seemed to look for the origin of the arts 
and sciences no higher than to the sooty cities of 
Egypt or Phoenicia, with all this evidence before 
them, as if the negro man must have been the first 
and only discoverers of all that is excellent in the 
earth, especially when it is known that this race have 



FORTVNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 223 

never of themselves, as negroes, patronized letters 
much in the world. 

Is it a credible thing that God, who committed to 
the race of Sliem, in the persons of the patriarchs of 
that line, the lights of immortality, did not also com- 
mit to the same characters and race, the lights of the 
arts and sciences, seeing that a knowledge of these 
very powers were necessary to the carrying out of 
the very plans of the Deity, by the means of a branch 
of this race of men, the Shemites? 

Professor Lawrence, a man who ranks among the 
first men of the age, contends in his lectures, that as 
all the black nations of the globe are in a low and 
miserable condition; and that, as they have been 
thus for thousands of years, therefore they are cor- 
respondingly low and miserable in their faculties, 
and is the very reason why they submit to slavery. 
He deems i\\e moral and intellectual character of the 
negro race, decidedly inferior to that of the white 
race, and that this condition arises out of his ana- 
tomical organization — p. 428, Than that this is so, 
there is no truth more self-evident, and yet there are 
found even among white men and women, and of 
such as lay claim to high distinction in society, those 
who do not hesitate to aver, that there is no good 
reason why an amalgamation of white and black 
blood should not take place. 

Without reciting in this place all the physical pe- 
culiarities of the shape, color, and character of the 
negro race, it may suffice to remark, that when the 
two races come in contact, and the thoughts of amal- 
gamation crosses the mind of a white, it is accom- 



224 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

panied with a chill of the soul, which is nothing else 
but the voice of God in nature against it. The sym^ 
pathies when called upon, in this respect, to coalesce 
with a creature of another cast and constitution, cry 
out and flee with afiright, as if pursued by some hor- 
rid phantom of darkness ; surely^ God never intend- 
ed any such jumbling up of his original work, as 
amalgamation proposes. 

As to the natural manners of the negro race, there 
is between them and the other races, a deeply mark- 
ed difference in relation to the risible faculty. The 
continual readiness of the African to burst into loud 
and boisterous fits of laughter, increasing even to 
yells, with but little or no cause to excite it, is a trait 
entirely peculiar to that people. This peculiarity, 
which so attaches to the very being of the negro 
race was equally possessed by Ham, the first negro, 
as appears in his treatment of the patriarch Noah, in 
the hour of his sleep, as we have already shown 
from Josephus. 

There is another circumstance in the physical be- 
ing of many of the African race, of which we al- 
most decline to speak, and this is the strange and 
imaccountable circumstance of their near approach 
in their shapes, to that of the wild man of the woods, 
the ourang-outang. 

If it was consistent in the Divine economy to pro- 
duce a black race of men, as in the person of Ham, 
suited in their constitutional make, to people the hot 
regions of the earth, why need they, therefore, in so 
many instances, be formed so much like the animal 
above alluded to? Could not the African have been 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



225 



produced black, with all the peculiar temperaments 
of body and mind, without their having been formed 
so much like that strange looking creature, to the 
black man's deep dislike, as well as to the surprise of 
all who have seen any of that kind of animal ? 

The ourang-outang is a most extraordinary crea- 
ture, not only on account of its near approach to the 
form of many of the African race, but also from its 
almost human actions, great size, and greater strength. 
Some individuals of the species, which have been 
taken, have measured full seven feet in height, and 
were otherwise as largely proportioned. Such an 
one was caught on the northern coast of the island 
Sumatra^ in the Indian Ocean, which was a real 
giant. The account given by Dr. Clark Abel, re- 
specting the capture and size of this extraordinary 
animal, is as follows: "When first observed, the 
creature seemed to be much fatigued, as if he were 
resting from a long and arduous journey His legs, 
nearly to the knees, were covered with mud, showing 
that he had passed a region of country of a boggy or 
miry character, and was resting in the broad forks of 
a tree, when first seen by the hunters, near the shores 
of the island. As the boat's crew approached the land, 
the monster appeared to be aware of its danger, and 
that a single tree, whereon it was restino^, did not af- 
ford adequate means of safety. It, therefore, descend- 
ed, and escaping to a small clump of forest trees, at 
some distance, whither it was now pursued by the 
hunters, seemed to feel itself more secure. But as 
the hunters came up, they let ofl:' their guns, five at 
the first shot, the balls of which all took eifect. On 



226 ORIGIN', CHARACTER, AND 

feeling itself wounded, the wonderful animal left the 
tree on which it was resting for the moment, and 
bounded with great activity and force, from one tree 
to another, so that for a time it seemed to bid defiance 
to the hunters to overtake it. At length, however, 
its exertions grew fainter, and leaning against a limb, 
it vomited blood, being then some feet up among the 
limbs of the tree, in which it was putting its trust. 
The powder of the party being now exhausted, as 
they had been on the hunt for a long time that day, be- 
fore they fell in with this rencontre, they were obliged 
to cut the trees down with their axes in order to be 
able to strike it with their spears. The animal was 
soon cut down, but as the tree fell, what was their 
surprise to see the wild man spring with great activ- 
ity into the boughs of another, thus effecting its 
escape with seemingly unabated vigor. They now 
fell to cutting down all the trees of the place, which 
consisted of but a small clump, as they were deter- 
mined to capture it by a conflict on the ground. This 
plan was accomplished, and the last tree brought the 
animal in immediate conflict with its enemies. Here 
they plied their spears on every side, as the bleeding 
animal bounded hither and thither amidst its foes, 
without seeming desirous of attacking any of them. 
But as it was overcome by many wounds, and nearly 
in a dying state, it suddenly seized hold of a spear, 
the handle of which no man could break, and snap- 
ped it asunder, as if it were but a dry twig. Its 
strength, however, they now saw was beginning to 
fail from a loss of blood ; when in its agony, it would 
clap its hands on the wounds and look so pitiful at 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE 227 

its tormentors, that the men began to have doubts as 
to the nature of the deed they were perpetrating, so 
much were its actions like a human being in distress. 
But soon it fainted, and fell down on the grass qui- 
escent, and was dead. On measuring the strange 
creature, it was found to be seven feet in length, and 
looked, while alive, and bounding from one tree to 
another, like a monster of a man, entirely naked, but 
overgrown with a thick coat of black, shiny hair, of 
about three inches long, except on the forehead and 
face. Its chin was fringed with a beard, which curl- 
ed neatly on each side. Its arms were long— much 
longer than are a man's arms— while the legs were in 
proportion shorter, presenting a body of great size 
and power. The chest was broad and expanded, 
while the waist was quite slender, as are all the 
monkey tribes. The posteriors were pointed and nar- 
row, which trait of form is also that of the African 
negroes. Upon the whole, says Dr. Abel, it was a 
wonderful creature to behold, and more about it to ex- 
cite surprise than fear." 

Mr. Shaw, the Wesleyan missionary in South Af- 
rica, says, that he has seen a whole troop of baboons 
on the mountains, who would not only scream, caper, 
and frolic at sight of their company, but would actu- 
ally laugh. — Page 79 of his Memorials. 

The existence of this animal, the ourang-outang, 
is a great phenomenon in the world of beasts, on ac- 
count of its near approach to human beings, and es- 
pecially to that of the negro race, both in form and 
capacities. The extreme scarcity of the creature in 
the world is not the least circumstance of its singu- 



228 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



larity, for it is found only in one or two districts of 
the whole globe, and those are in Africa ; we mean 
the large class of the animal. Because there is a 
palpable similarity in many particulars between the 
negro race, and the extraordinary animal above de- 
scribed, we by no means insinuate, what many seem 
to believe, namely, that they are a connecting link 
between the ourang-outang and the white man ; as 
this is utterly impossible, on account of Ham's j)a- 
rentage^ and because there is no such thing as a gra- 
dation from brute natures to that of the human ; for 
man stands alone, being the image of God, and his 
only image on the planet. Our remarks, therefore, 
as above, and those which are to follow, are intended 
only to prove the natural and innocent fact of the ne- 
groes' inental and physical existence as actually in- 
ferior to the whites. In connection with this view, 
we shall notice the very curious circumstance of the 
difference there is between the wa^M/'e of a negro's ^esA, 
and that of the white man, the knowledge of which 
is afforded by the appetites of certain animals. The 
shark, the lion, tiger, and leopard, prefer the flesh of 
the negro to that of white men. This is found to be 
true as to the shark, when the two races bathe to- 
gether in waters inhabited by that voracious fish ; it 
always selects the blacks, as an article of food suited 
to its taste, rather than the whites, rejecting the lat- 
ter to the last. It is the same when white men and 
negroes hunt the animals of the forest, above men- 
tioned, together in Africa, those monsters always se- 
lecting the blacks as their prey, when it is as easy 
for them to take one as the other. Were we to ren 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 229 

der a reason for this curious preference, we should 
say that it is on account of the strong odor of the ne- 
gro's body, wliich, to the smell and taste, is more in- 
viting than the white man's iiesh, as is the smell and 
taste of the hor'se and the ass to those carnivorous 
creatures. In conformity to this fact, that of the 
strong odor of the negro's body, they can digest food 
of a much coarser and stronger character than white 
men can, such as the shark, the crocodile, the rhinoc- 
eros, the elephant, the hippopotamus, tigers, hyasnas, 
dogs, lions, panthers, and serpents of every descrip- 
tion, with the greatest ease and relish. All these are 
rejected by the white man, as abhorrent to his na- 
ture, tastes, and powers of digestion, except in cases 
of strong necessity and starvation. The horrid and 
heart-appalling practice of ca7inihalis7n, has, in all 
ages, attached more to the African race than to any 
other people of the earth. In the country of Egypt, 
according to Baron Humboldt, as late as the thir- 
teenth century, five hundred years ago, this dread- 
ful practice prevailed, even among the higher orders 
of the people, as well as the lower, so that extraordi- 
nary traps and snares were resorted to, in order to 
catch each other for food, as they would any other 
animal. He says, that physicians were often sent for, 
under a pretense of illness, when tliey who sent for 
them would kill and devour the physician, having 
arranged the plan how to deceive and destroy them 
before their arrival. The large island Sumatra, in 
the Indian Ocean, is peopled by blacks of the negro 
description, who, formerly, if not now, devoured all 
persons among them, condemned to death for crimes 



230 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

committed against their laws. The manner of such 
executions was as follows. The criminal was tied 
naked to a post firmly fixed in the ground, while 
the executioners stood around the fatal spot with 
knives in their hands, who, when the sign for them 
to begin was given, fell on, in a regular manner, in 
the sight of thousands, cutting away such parts of 
the body as their respective fancies and appetites 
made choice of, eating the quivering flesh in its blood, 
with pepper and salt, while the poor wretch was 
howling and writhing with pain, as his devourers, all 
negroes like himself, were chewing and swallowing 
him down before his own eyes with gestures of great 
delight and satisfaction. — IMasonic Record, p. 123, 
No. 1, 1 830. In New Holland, there are, or icere, sev- 
eral tribes of negroes, who have very large heads and 
mouths. Their heads, in form, resemble the head of 
the ourang-outang. They are entirely covered with 
black hair or wool, are very limited in their intellect- 
ual powers, but are extremely dexterous in climbing 
trees, precipices, and rocky places, in which particu- 
lar they greatly resemble the apes and baboons of Af- 
rica. They are exceedingly black, and have mouths 
much wider than any other people of the human race. 
They eat all kinds of reptiles, as bugs, worms, and 
serpents, with every decayed and filthy thing ; but 
whether they are cannibals we are not informed. 
Nearly the same is said of the wa^ires of Australasia, 
who are small in stature, ill shaped, and among the 
most degraded and barbarous of the whole human 
race, going entirely naked, with their bodies smeared 
over like the Hottentot's, with oil and filth, having no 



FORTUNES, OF THE NKGliO RACE. 231 

religion, or idea of a God, no government, and none 
of the comforts of civilized life, though occupying 
a country rich in every natural advantage of the 
globe. — /Smit/t's Geo., p, 296. Were ever white men 
so low as this? 

On the island called Van Dieman's Land, in the 
Southern Ocean, lat. 42^, which is adjacent to New 
Holland, there is, according to Captain Graufs ac- 
count, a tribe of negroes extremely black and woolly, 
whose whole formation is frightfully like the ourang- 
outang, being, as to stature, many of them full six 
feet high, and powerfully built, who are far stronger 
than other men of their size, and very ferocious. 
These negroes cat human flesh as freely as they do 
any other meat, making no diflerence, one way or an- 
other, in the light of its being l>etter or worse than 
the flesh of other creatures. They sleep in the open 
air, although the country is far from being hot, as it 
is in lat. 42° south, and full as cold as is the climate 
of New York, in both winter and summer; and yet 
they sleep in the open air on the ground, and in the 
trees, Uke the wild tenants of the heavens and the 
earth, huddling in caves and holes in the winter, as 
well as they can. 

The negroes of the Norfolk, or New Hebrides Isl- 
ands, in the Pacific Ocean, make use of human flesh 
and count it as a great luxury — a banquet of the 
highest order. — Malie-Bnai, p. 620. In the island 
Mallicola, in the Indian Ocean, according to the 
above author, is a race or tribe of negroes, who, it is 
said, may almost be regarded as a kind of apes or 
baboons; as they have long flat noses, narrow fore- 



232 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



heads, high cheek hones, under jaws which protrude 
beyond what is common to Africans, very low of 
stature, and every way entirely horrible to look upon, 
on account of their extraordinary approximation to 
the shapes and attitudes of ourang-outangs. 

The negroes of Solomon's Islands, in the Pacific 
Ocean, south latitude 10°, are exceedingly black and 
cruel; whose chiefs will kill a man, for happening to 
cross their shadow, so despotic and fierce are they in 
their anger. They wear around their bodies, as or- 
naments, strings of human teeth, and other tokens of 
ferocity and murderous practices. These negroes are 
cannibals of the worst description, living on human 
flesh, in preference to all other kinds of meat, which 
they procure by wars among themselves, and from 
shipwrecked vessels, which are cast by tempests on 
these inhospitable and bloody shores. 

But from whence came the negroes of those islands 
of the Pacific Ocean, so far removed from Africa, 
their native country? We believe them to be descend- 
ants of the Cnshiies, who settled, first of all, and be- 
fore they went to Africa, along the Persian Gulf, and 
the Eastern Ocean, from whence they got on to these 
islands, by various means, where they have remained 
from that period till the present. The islands of 
New Hebrides, New Holland, Van Dieman, New 
Zealand, and Solomon's Islands, with many others, 
which are inhabited by negroes, lie all along adja- 
cent to the coasts of Asia, so that they were easily 
reached by these first settlers, of the Ethiopia of that 
country, before they were conquered and driven out of 
it by the Shemites, as before stated. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



233 



There is no other way to account for the appear- 
ance of the blacks on those islands, who have ever 
been acknowledged as the aboriginal or native people, 
other races mixing among them subsequently. This 
fact, also, establishes that the negro race were always 
as they are, and that those negro islanders are the 
descendants of the Asiatic Cushites, who now are 
cannibals, and have been thus in all time. From 
this same stock of black men, the Cushites of the 
days of Noah, descended the myriads of the negro 
race, found mixed through all the nations of the 
great eastern world, as China, the Indies, Hindostan, 
<fcc., among whom they are slaves, as in all other 
parts of the earth, carrying out the curse of Noah. 
On the continent of Africa, there is in the interior a 
tribe of negroes, called Eboes, whose features won- 
derfully resemble baboons, like those on the island 
Mallicola, particularly in the great elongation of the 
under jaw; these are likewise cannibals. — Morse's 
Geo., p. 785. 

Mr. Vaugill, an American, who traveled in Africa, 
having penetrated some way into the interior, among 
the Gango negroes, came to a pretty large settlement, 
where he found a kind of market place, to which the 
inhabitants resorted to buy and sell such things as 
they dealt in. Here Mr. Vaugill found an abundance 
of human legs and thighs, hanging on pegs driven 
into the trees and their huts, for sale, the same as 
meat is exposed in the markets of civilized countries. 

In another district of Africa, called Z>en/;m. situated 
on the shore of a river, where a schooner, command- 
ed by one Captain Dwminger, had anchored for the 
10* 



234 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



purpose of hunting, dwelt a tribe, or nation, of ne- 
groes, but what their name was is not recorded. At 
this place, a part of the crew went on shore, where 
there was a thick wood, in quest of game. For some 
reason or other, perhaps fear, they kept pretty near 
together, while they were looking about in the un- 
known woods, when they were suddenly set upon by 
a large party of negroes, concealed in the grass, and 
notwithstanding the guns of the schooner's party, 
were at once overpowered, being frightened, as the 
negroes rose up immediately about, and under their 
very feet. 

They were instantly killed with clubs, except one 
or two, who being a little apart from the main com- 
pany, fled to the vessel with the news. As soon as 
possible, the residue of the crew hastened to the spot, 
well armed, where they found nothing but the blood 
and entrails of the victims, for their bodies had dis- 
appeared, carried away, as they believed, to be used 
as food for the murderers. 

A race of negroes once inhabited a large district 
of country, about and beyond the heads of the Nile, 
in Abyssinia, far south of the equator, called Giogas, 
who once overran a great country in Africa, in the re- 
gion known as Upper Egypt^ supporting themselves, 
as they went, by killing and eating the inhabitants, 
as they would so many cattle in an enemy's country. 
They finally seized upon a district which lies south 
of AngoUa, bordering on the great Sahara, or sand 
desert, where they finally settled, and were living 
when the Christian missionaries found them. When- 
ever these people, who were the terror of the surround- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



235 



ing tribes, went out on marauding excursions to plun- 
der and capture their own race, as has been the cus- 
tom of all Africa, in all ages, they always selected 
from among their female slaves as many as they 
judged necessary for their support on their way, 
whom they killed as they went, for food, having used 
them as their wives till the time of butchering them 
came. — Edinburgh Eiic, vol. ii, p. 185. 

Is it possible to conceive of any condition in hu- 
man life so utterly horrible — so far removed from the 
common sympathies and moral feelings of humani- 
ty — so deeply damned as were this community of ne- 
groes? And yet their character was but in perfect 
keeping, more or less, with every horde, tribe, and 
nation, of the race, whether we go back to the first 
ages of their being in Asia and Africa, or look at them 
after the lapse of thousands of years, and as they are 
now, in their own untaught character, as found in 
the islands, woods, and mountains, of their blood-stain- 
ed country. 

The Rev. Mr. Brown, of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Africa, related, when on a recent visit to 
America, some appalling accounts of cannibalism, as 
seen and known by himself. He related that he had 
seen some ten or a dozen men buy a prisoner from a 
tribe who had taken him in battle, and, tying his 
hands behind his back, fell upon him with knives, 
cutting off pieces of his body as the victim went, who 
filled the air with yells and cries for mercy, till he 
fell down from a loss of blood, when he was entirely 
devoured, except the bones. The Rev. Bar7iabas 
Shaw, a Wesleyan Missionary, in his Memorials of 



236 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

South Africa, says — but, as we deem it, vather reluc- 
tantly — that the Bechanan negroes are sometimes 
cannibals. — Page 56. 

That this trait of negro depravity and appetite was 
as much in vogue among them in the country of old 
Canaan, even prior to the time of Moses, and the 
conquest of those nations by the Hebrews, as it was 
in ancient Africa, or any of the adjacent islands at 
any time, appears from some remarks in the writings 
ascribed to Solomon, on this very subject. It is said 
of Solomon, in the Scriptures, that he was a wise 
man, and, of necessity, a well read man, or he could 
not have been wise. Solomon was, no doubt, ac- 
quainted with the history and manners of the ancient 
nations of the country over which he reigned, and 
who, in part, had been conquered by his own arms. 
He had access to the writings of all former ages, even 
those of Noah and Melchisedek, as well as of the 
other patriarchs. On these accounts, we may rely 
upon what he has said on the subject of negro can- 
nibalism in the book of Wisdom, as set forth in the 
Apocrypha, chap, xii, as follows : " For it was thy 
will (O Lord) to destroy, by the hands of our fathers 
[the Hebrews], both those old inhabitants of thy holy 
land [Canaan], whom thou hatest, for doing most 
odious works of witchcrafts and wicked sacrifices, 
and also those merciless murderers of children, and 
devourers of man^s flesh, and the feasts of bloody 
with their priests, out of the midst of their idolatrous 
crew, and the parents that killed, with their own 
hands, babes destitute of help," 

Respecting these ancient nations of Canaan, the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



237 



seed of Ham, Solomon further states, in the same 
chapter, as above, as follows: "But executing thy 
judgment upon them by little and little, thou gavest 
them place of repentance, not being ignorant that 
they were a naughty generation, and that their ma- 
lice was bred in them, and that their cogitation 
would never be changed ; for it was a " cursed seed " 
from the beginning. 

Here, allusion is made by Solomon to the curse 
of Noah, and to the decree of God against the race, 
in the words they were a ^^ cursed seed^' from the be- 
ginning, that is from the birlh of Ham, and that 
their malice was bred in them. Concerning this 
people, Solomon farther saith, in chapter 14: "More- 
over, this was not enough for them that erred in the 
knowledge of God ; but whereas they lived in great 
ignorance, those so great plagues called they peace. 
For whilst they killed their children in sacrifice, or 
used secret ceremonies, or made revellings of strange 
rites ; they kept neither lives nor marriages any longer 
undefiled ; but either one slew another treacherously 
or grieved him by adultery, so that there reigned in 
all men (of those nations), without exception, blood, 
man-slaughter, theft, dissimulation, corruption, un- 
faithfulness, tumults and perjury." 

This account of the character of the ancient and 
first negroes of Canaan, as given by Solomon in the 
book of Wisdom, is corroborated in relation to canni- 
balism, by the sacred text itself, and therefore is es- 
tablished against them beyond all doubt. See book 
of Numbers, xiii, 23, where there is an account of 
the spies, who were sent into the mountains and 



238 



<9RIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



country of Canaan, to see what kind of people dwelt 
there; who reported of them, when they returned, 
that they were monsters, not only in stature, but in 
practice, for they said, ^Hhey eat up the inhabitants.^^ 
That is, they were cannibals, which frightened the 
spies nearly out of their wits. 

The Carthaginians sacrificed infants to their gods, 
as well as adult persons. At one time, says Rollin, 
Vol. i, pages 255 and 272, they burnt two hundred 
babies, and three hundred grown i)ersons. But 
whether they eat them after they were roasted, is not 
related by the historian. This dreadful practice they 
carried with them, from old Phoenicia or the land of 
Canaan, as the black nations of Carthage were de- 
rived from the blacks of Canaan, page 275 of the 
above author. 

This is a dreadful picture of the ferocity of those 
early negro nations, who, it appears, not only wor- 
shiped the devil, practiced witchcrafts and sorcery, 
disregarded the marriage rites, murdered, swore false, 
practiced all kinds of dissimulation, but in addition 
to all this, they would kill and eat their own children, 
or any of the weaker inhabitants, the aged, tbe in- 
firm, prisoners, &;c. — all these they would devour as 
an article of food. 

The times alluded to by Solomon, in the book of 
Wisdom, and by the book of Numbers, as above 
quoted, was some fifteen and nineteen hundred years 
B. C. Comparing these facts with the statements of 
Herodotus on the same subject (see below), we learn 
that the negro race, more or less, have always been ad- 
dicted to cannibalism, from the very beginning till 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 239 



the present time. The following is from the pen of 
Herodotus, the eldest of the Greek historians (see his 
work as translated, p. 170), where it is recorded re- 
specting the Lybian negroes: "If any man among 
them appeared to be diseased, his nearest connections 
put him to death immediately, alledging in excuse 
that sickness would waste and injure his flesh. 
They pay no regard to his assertion, that he is not 
really ill, but without the least compunction, deprive 
him of his life," and then devour him when cooked. 

From the time of Moses to the time of Herodotus, 
was a lapse of more than one thousand years. From 
the time of Herodotus to the time of the thirteenth 
century of the Christian era, when, according to 
Baron Humboldt and other good authorities, canni- 
balism was entirely universal in Egj^pt, among the 
negro class of the people, was a lapse of some fif- 
teen hundred years; and from the thirteenth century 
to the present time, is some four hundred more ; 
amounting in all to full three thousand years of the 
history of that race, in which they have been, irre- 
spective of civilization, actually more or less in the 
practice of the dreadful crime of eating human flesh, 
as an article of food; not from necessity, nor on ac- 
count of the requirements of their religion, but whol- 
ly from the common desire of that kind of food, the 
same as dogs or any other carnivorous animal. 

It was but a few years since, 1839, that a part of 
the crew of the vessel Colonel Crocket, which sailed 
from Newburgh, N. Y., to Africa, was devoured by 
the negro cannibals, on the Delago river, inland about 
a hundred miles, while engaged on a hunting excur- 



240 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

sion in the woods of that river. For all the particu- 
lars of that horrid affair, see the paper entitled "The 
New World," March 13, 1841. 

On comparing the white nations in any, or all the 
ages of the earth, with the tribes, hordes, and nations 
of the aboriginal blacks, it is not possible, however 
far removed from the lights and influences of the 
true religion, to find such evidences of absolute men- 
tal and practical degradation, as is found over the 
whole earth, among the negro race, whether in a civ- 
ilized or a savage state. It is impossible to find, in 
the history of any of the white nations, since the 
flood of Noah, a community who were absolutely 
without any knowledge of a God, of law and order, 
self-government, &c,, as we find in all the history of 
the savage parts of the negro race. Is there on the 
page of universal history, whether written or tradi- 
tionary, any account of white men going entirely na- 
ked in the woods all their lives ; their women and 
their children having no dwellings better than a cave, 
a hollow tree, or a hut made of twigs, or some frag- 
ile substance ; without order, laws, religion, or any 
kind of refinements whatever? — no knowledge of 
agriculture or of improvements in any way beyond a 
wooden spear, a bow and arrows, or some such im- 
plement ? In such a condition, millions of the negro 
race are found in all ages of the world, as well as at 
the present time ; but never the white race. Is not 
this fact an evidence of the radical and abiding dif- 
ference there is between the races — the blacks and 
the whites — in relation to mind? In America, how- 
ever, it is very common for some people to charge the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



241 



iow and degraded condition of the negro rar-e, to the 
account of the domineering manners of llie whites over 
them; but we presume they will not do so in relation 
to the foregoing accounts, as the white man's influence 
is unknown in their ancient or modern barbarous con- 
dition ; on this account, such persons will be com- 
pelled, even against their own wills, to place the 
cause to the right account — which is the negro's own 
natural imbecilities. 

It is utterly impossible to reduce the whites by any 
process whatever to so low a condition, as is found 
to be the universal state of the negro race, on account 
of the possession of superior mental faculties, moral 
feelings, reason, reflections, sympathies, and all the 
train of qualifications, constituting the image of God, 
as alluded to, Gen, i, 27. But these qualifications, 
and tills image, are possessed by the negro race in a 
less degree, which corresponds exactly with the dif- 
ference there is between thecolorj forms and attitudes 
of the tv/o races. 

In further illustration of this fact, it is said by 
physicians, who have made the tropical diseases 
their study, that the negro sleeps sound in every dis- 
ease, nor does any mental disturbances ever keep them 
awake. They bear surgical operations much better 
than whites; and what would be the cause of insup- 
portable pain to a white, a negro would almost dis- 
regard, I have, says Dr. Mosely, amputated the legs 
of many negroes, who have held the upper part of 
the limb themselves, alone. — Lawrence's Lectures, 
p. 402. 

And as corroboratory of tliis fact, we sec it stated 
II 



242 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AKD 



in the speech of Dr. Browning, in the great abolition 
convention at London, that when he was in Egypt, 
a black man., who was a soldier, and who was wound- 
ed in the leg, found it necessary to have the limb 
amputated. This was done by a surgeon named 
Clot Bey., and when he expressed his surprise at not 
hearing any exclamation of pain, his answer was, 
"Do you think that a black man can bear pain no 
better than the white man can 1" — Pennsylvanian 
Freeman., Aiig-ust 6, 1840. 

This circumstance, however, is made use of by ne- 
gro admirers as an evidence of the great fortitude of 
their natures, and strength of mind. But this notion 
is ov^erthrown in the fact of their want of courage 
in the hour of terror and danger., and of perseverance 
in great undertakings. It is true that the race is fe- 
rocious, but ferocity is neither an evidence of courage, 
fortitude, nor of mind, but is rather a trait of their 
nervous insensibility, agreeing with the fact above 
stated. 

The distinction of color, between white and black, 
is not more striking than is the difference between 
the moral feelings and me)ital endowments of the 
two races. They indulge almost universally in dis- 
gusting debauchery and sensuality, displaying every 
where a gross indifference to the mental pains and 
pleasures of others. Insensibility to order and met- 
aphysical harmony, with an entire want of what is 
comprehended under the idea of elevated sentiment, 
manly virtue and moral feeling, is characteristic of 
the race ; these traits and virtues attach more prom- 
inently to the whites, which cannot be denied by any 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 243 

but fanatics, the profoundly ignorant and self-hlinded 
character. 

There are districts of country in Africa, and espe- 
cially along the Atlas mountains, in which apes and 
baboons are so abundant, that in many of the mud 
hut towns of the negro natives, these animals live all 
together, as if they were members of the same com- 
munity. — Heme's Researches, Vol. i, p. 37. Herod- 
otus speaKs of a tribe of negroes in Africa, who were 
so profoundly ignorant, that they had no names by 
which they could distinguish each other; their mem- 
ories, respecting the looks of individuals, being their 
only guide when they met, the same as dogs after they 
get acquainted. 

In no age, and under no circumstances, is it possi- 
ble to ascertain, among any tribes, nations, or com- 
munities of the whites, so much misery and meanness, 
so much wretchedness and bestiality, as is found 
among the negroes, not of America, but of Africa, 
among the aboriginal people. Neither is it possible 
to ascertain from the page of history, under the most 
favoring circumstances, that the negro race have ever 
risen to a comparable height with the white nations 
in the sciences, or even in the most necessary arts. 

The ancient negroes of Egypt, Ethiopia, Lybia, 
and Phcenicia, had no knowledge of water power, as 
being applicable to propel machinery, nor of machin- 
ery itself. They knew nothing of the architectural 
arch. They had no knowledge of the mighty prin- 
ciple of steam, nor of gunpowder — nothing of the 
magnetic needle, the clock or time-piece. They knew 
nothing respecting anatomy and the circulation of 



244 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, ANI 

the blood in the human body, or in an:unals. They 
had no knowledge of the art of printing, nor of the 
iron plow-share, with hundreds of implements, and 
manufactures now understood, and in use in the 
world among white nations. 

Well, what of all that, says one ; neither were any 
of these things known or understood by any body 
else, black or white, in those times. Granted ; but 
how came it to pass, we ask, that, in the process of 
ages, the negro man, or race, has never discovered 
any of these things, while the white man has found 
out and invented them all? It is true that the Scrip- 
lures intimate that the Egyptians were a very wise 
people, by saying that Moses was learned in all the 
wisdom of the Egyptians ; Acts vii, 22. But what 
was this wisdom after all, but a mass of superstition 
and nonsense, respecting their idolatrous religion, a 
world of stuff, which Moses despised and rejected. 
Respecting their wisdom, the Jewish Rabbi hold, 
says Dr. Clarke, that it consisted in the arts of necro- 
mancy and magic, with which Moses, of necessity, 
was well acquainted, having been brought up in the 
court of Pharaoh, as heir apparent to the throne ; but 
he condemned the whole as false wisdom and vain 
philosophy, derived from the heresies of the toiler, as 
from a germ engendered in the polluted hearts of 
Ham and NJiJirod, the great fathers o{ negro idolatry 
in the world. 

In closing this section, we give the opinion of Rol- 
ling as it respects the innate strength of the negro's 
mind and courage, in substance as follows: The 
Carthagenians had mean and ^^ groveling souls" as 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 245 

when they were victorious in battle, they were al- 
ways cruel and ferocious to the prisoners; but when 
defeated themselves, they would cringe down like 
frightened dogs, losing all courage and hope. This 
was the true character of the famous Carthagenians 
in all their wars, and history of their existence. — Vol. 
i, p. 255. 

Durino^ the first Punic or Phoenician war, toward 
the close of that contest, the Carthagenians were 
obliged to procure a general to lead their armies, and 
conduct their forces against the Romans, from the 
Greeks^ as among themselves there were none who 
could cope with the victorious Regulus. The general 
they procured was the famous 2^aniipp7is, a I^ace- 
demonian, who, when he had taken the command of 
the sooty legions, soon became the victor, even tak- 
ing the Roman commander prisoner, as well as de- 
feating his forces, when a peace between the two 
powers ensued. 

Does this fact go to exhibit the black men of Car- 
thage, whether woolly headed or straight haired, as 
being equal, in point of talent, with white men, when 
they were compelled to employ a white general, a 
Greek, to compete with, and conquer, the Romans at 
that time, or to submit to ruin? — Whelpley^s Com- 
j)end of History, p. 165. 

But how did the Carthagenians requite the brave 
white general, for his acts of valor and friendship 1 
By murdering him, for fear that it should be known 
that a white man had assisted them, and was the 
cause of their. good fortune. This fact shows also, 
as Rollin has spoken of them, namely, that they 



246 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

were mean and grovelino- of soul. On that famous 
occasion, it is said by the above historian [vol. i, p. 
285], that when the Carthagenians saw how much 
superior the abilities of Zantippus were to their own 
generals, in manoeuvering the troops in battle, they 
were stritck with astonishment, and said that the 
ablest generals of Carthage knew nothing in compar- 
ison with this Greek. As to the natural courage 
(which is but another term for superior abilities) of 
the Roman white men, and the black Carthagenians, 
there was no comparison ; as the former, though often 
defeated, were never discouraged; while the latter 
fell into despair at the very ojnens of defeat. — Rollin, 
vol. i, p. 297. This author further saith, vol. i, page 
356, that whenever the Carthagenians got a victory 
over the Romans, their white opponents, they would 
butcher^ crucify, and tear the prisoners to death ; but 
that, on the contrary, when the Romans got a victory, 
they were lenient and humane. This fact, to Hanni- 
bal, was a very strange thing, which his mind could 
not readily comprehend. Mercy to a defeated ene- 
my, was, to the Carthagenians, a solveless problem, 
Avhile in the minds of the Romans it was a virtue of 
the highest order. That such dispositions as these are 
the innate character of the negro race, is further 
shown from the following : In Western Africa, it is 
now a custom of the king of Dahomey, annually to 
assemble all the chiefs and nobles of his kingdom, in 
order to aid him in the ceremony of watering the 
graves of his ancestors with blood. On such occa- 
sions, hun ireds of human beings were butchered, con- 
sisting of prisoners, of criminals, and also of many 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 247 

seized promiscuously by lawless violence from among 
the crowd, who suspected no evil. At any time 
when the king wishes to send a message to his de- 
ceased relation in another world, he delivers the er- 
rand to some one standing near, and then strikes oif 
his head, that he may go and carry it. The roofs 
of the huts of this king's place of residence are orna- 
mented all over, as are also the pavements before the 
doors of his huts, with the jaw bones and sculls of 
human beings. 

In Western Africa, there is another kindom, called 
Ashantee^ whose king is far more a tyrant than the 
king of Dahomey. When the English Commission- 
ers, not many years since, had arrived at the capital, 
which was but a wilderness of low and conical huts; 
it was at a time when the annual man butchery 
took place, for the sake of the dead. The following 
is the account as published — Universal Traveler, 
page 420: 

" During their stay, the Commissioners witnessed 
scenes so dreadful, that it seemed to sink the Ashan- 
tee character even below the ordinary level of savage 
life. The custom of human sacrifices is practiced 
here, on a scale still more tremendous than at Daho- 
mey. The king had lately sacrificed, on the grave 
of his mother, three thousand victims, and at the 
death of the late sovereign, his predecessor, the sacri- 
fice was continued weekly, for three months. * * * 
On these occasions, the Cahoceers and princes, in 
order to court the royal favor, would often rush out 
from the presence of the king, and the first man they 
met they would drag to the sacrifice. While this 



248 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

business lasts, it is, therefore, with trembhng steps, 
that any one crosses the king's threshold ; and when 
compelled to do so, they rush along with the utmost 
speed (as if they were passing the gates of hell), 
dreading every moment the murderous grasp, from 
which there is no escape." 

Here there was a sacrifice of two thousand four 
hundred lives of slaves, in the short space of three 
months. At such a rate as that, a custom of this de- 
scription would, in a century, during the reign of, say 
but four kings, allowing them an average reign of 
twenty-five years, destroy the lives of two hundred 
and forty thousand slaves, as it is the slave of the 
Ashantees who have thus to suffer. Is American 
slavery any thing like this, as now extant in the ne- 
gro's own happy land, as abolitionists would have 
men believe it is ? 

What other people but this race, the Hamites, have 
been found on the earth since the creation of man, 
who are so foolish and cruel, when they have power 
and opportunity? Had there been no other race cre- 
ated on the earth, long ago the whole world would 
have been but one great slaughter-house, in which nc 
light of science, religion, government, or the useful 
arts, would ever have been heard of; as all these 
blessings are of other origin than the negro man. 

As it was then, in the ages of Carthage, so it is now, 
and ever has been thus : the negro, when in power, 
plays the tiger, glorying in deeds of blood and terror; 
but when in subjection, he cringes with stupid fear, 
yielding his neck easily to the yoke and condition of 
slavery. If Hannibal was a great general, or rather 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



249 



a successful one, we think we need not fear lo assert 
that what he was, he owed to the superior talents of 
two white men, Lacedemonians, namely, Sobsius 
and Philemius, one of whom was his teacher^ and 
the other a coimselloi', who always attended him in 
his warlike expeditions. — Rollin, vol. i, p. 375. 

There were others of the Africans, as Masinissa 
and Jiiba, kings v/ho reigned in the interior of Afri- 
ca, in the time of the Carthagenians, of whom it is 
said that they were great men, who, as well as Han- 
nibal, received their education of white teachers — the 
Romans. 

In conclusion, therefore, from a view of the pre- 
ceding facts, we are compelled to hold that it is abso- 
lutely certain, taking the whole history of both races, 
the whites and blacks, into the account, that the latter 
are absolutely unequal and lower in mental abilities, 
and do not possess, naturally, the stamina of im- 
provement as do the former; and that this difference 
is attributable alone to the wisdom of God, in the 
creation of the negro race, in the blood and being of 
Ham, their father ; on which account it is as utterly 
impossible to elevate them to an equality with the 
whites, as it is to take away the blackness of their 
skins. 

As sure as day is fairer to the sight 

Than dreary darkness in the hour of night — 

Or wood, less dazzling in the sun's bright glare, 

Than Ophir's sands of gold and rubies are: 

So sure it is, as sure as truth is great, 

The blacks have got, than whites, a thicker pato, 

But if this thought displease, as not refin'd, 

We can but add, therefore — they have less mind. 



250 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



TENTH SECTION. 

The subject of the amalgamation of the white and negro races ex- 
amined; which event, by some men, seems to be greatly desired— 
The voice of God, in nature, against it — Horrid results, were the 
amalgamation of the races to become universal — Lowering of the 
present standard of the powers of the human mind — Changes in 
the physical formation of the human body, as extant in the na- 
tions of white men, in their approximation to tho form of the 
ourang-outang, through the influence of negro amalgamation — 
Deterioration of the mental image of God, as given to the keeping 
of the white race — Negroes' brains found to be less in weight and 
measure than the white man's — Dodging of abolitionists on this 
question — Anticipations of some men that amalgamation will final- 
ly become universal, so as to put down slavery in this way — Slav- 
ery among the African negroes before they knew white men — 
Stealing each other — Murdering of children among them — Many 
facts respecting the near approach of various negro tribes to the 
form of the ourang-outang — Indifference to pain, when under sur- 
gical operations — Corresponding insensibility of the mind, with 
respect to the moral feelings of the heart, as well as to the suffer- 
ings of others — Cruelty to the aged and the sick — Pretended 
obsequiousness of some abolitionists to negroes, with a view, 
as they say, to their exaltation — Katural enmity between ne- 
groes and white men. 

Having, in the preceding section, treated on the 
mental inequahty of the negro man, compared with 
white men, we shall now pass to the subject of amal- 
gamating the two races, a thing which, in the minds 
of some persons, greatly to be desired, as in that way 
a universal equality would be made out. 

That the amalgamation of the two colors, black 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 251 

and white, were not designed by the Creator, is evi- 
dent from the very existence of those two complex- 
ions. Had God been pleased to view the whole hu- 
man race as possessing but one hue of complexion, 
he never would have produced more than that owe, 
whether it might have been black, white, or red, or 
any other color, as green or blue. But if it is said 
that the amalgamation of the races would be proper, 
and not displeasing to the Supreme Being, then it 
will follow that he is not displeased with the overturn, 
subversion, and adulteration of the works of his own 
hands or power, and the ruin oi first principles im- 
planted in the for/ns and colors of things created. 

That there should be in nature distinctions of this 
character is essential to order, to beauty, and classi- 
fication. Without this trait of the Divine operations, 
all nature would be but one universal blot, a vast 
compound of sameness. The earth would have no 
charms. There would be no distinction of color be- 
tween land and water. The green grass of the 
meadows and mountains, the leaves and flowers of 
all forests, the tints and hues of all minerals, the col- 
ors of various animals, as well as of the human race, 
would become blended and confused in one great 
chaotic mass, so far as colors are concerned, in the 
existence of things. Had not God, therefore, have 
seen that all beings of animal natures, and all sub- 
stances which make out the multitudinous amount 
of earth's productions and inhabitants, should be dis- 
tinguished for the sake of order, identification, and 
beauty, by a countless train of tints, hues, and colors, 
it would not have been thus produced. 



252 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



It is, therefore, from this view, at once evident, 
that as God did make the two complexions of black 
and white originally, which characterize two races 
of men, that it is, therefore, no less a sin than sacri- 
lege to amalgamate them, thereby destroying God's 
work, and supplying the ruin with adulterations. 
But when it is considered that there are connected 
with those two complexions, two races of men dif- 
ering as much in their mental faculties as they 
do in color and formation, and that these mental 
faculties, colors and formations, depend, for their 
continuance, upon the preservation of their respect- 
ive attributes in those particulars, it furnishes a 
mighty reason why the whites and blacks should not 
mingle races, and thereby sin against God in the mu- 
tilation of the original order. 

If by amalgating the two races, the native intel- 
lectuality of the whites becomes deteriorated, the 
reason why so monstrous an innovation on the rights 
of God should not be committed, is still more glaring. 
Is it wise, for the sake of elevating the negro race, 
to make so great a sacrifice as the destruction of the 
white man from the earth ? If so, let them amalgam- 
ate, the road is open and broad. Against such a 
course, on the part of the African, we have heard of 
no objections, and but little from abolitionists. 

Were the races universally, by amalgamation, to 
mingle, the eifect would be the destruction to both 
colors, the black and white, and a new one, which 
God never created, take the place of the others, and 
this would be a dingy yellow, called the Mulatto. 
The present heaven-approved form and complexion 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 253 

of the white race would be handed to posterity, 
through the darlc medium of negro blood, stained, ob- 
scured and confused. Their complexion would be 
but half white, the covering of their heads neither 
wool nor hair, their noses flattened and made wider, 
their mouths vastly extended, the temples narrowed 
and sunken, the forehead lowered and slanted back- 
ward, the contour of the head elongated, monkey 
like, the eyes eclipsed of intelligence and made glos- 
sy like the eyes of animals, the under jaw protruded, 
the teeth set laterally, the waist narrowed, the chest 
widened, the posteriors pointed and lifted up, the foot 
enlarged and made spongy on the outer sides, the 
heel set backward, the calf of the leg taken away, 
the shin bone made convex, the skull thickened, the 
lips pouted forward, the cheek bones lifted up, and 
the whole external of the progeny become changed, 
and merged in Egyptian darkness. But the above 
changes are not all the horrors which amalgamation 
produces ; as the passions and mental faculties be- 
come remodeled and changed to other characters, as 
presented in the mulatto race of negroes. 

There is an increased disposition to untameable 
and unrestrained lewdness, to treachery, to insensi- 
bility of feeling, to a want of high and manly senti- 
ment. There is seen in this character, as in the 
real black, a proneness to loud and senseless laughter, 
an extraordinary desire to whistle and sing, especially 
when in circumstances of labor and servitude. The 
fancies of the mind undergo a change also, in relation 
to colors, as the negro's eye is powerfully attracted 
by the red and yellow, in the decorations of their 



254 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

bodies. The powers of appetite are also increased, 
so that several kinds of food, abhorrent to a white 
man's palate, conies not amiss, as is seen among the 
wild people of Africa, whether black, brown or yel- 
low The feeling of love for children, in the light 
of a desire of their mental improvement, as is man- 
ifested by the white race, in a great measure, ceases 
to exist, and in its place springs up a happy indif- 
erence on this important matter. All this^ and much 
more than we have words to express, as seen in the 
whole negro character, would be the fearful result 
of lowering the standard of the human mind, as now 
possessed by the whites, by amalgamating the blood 
of the races. That such would be the consequence 
is as sure as is cause and effect ; for it is a physio- 
logical fact, that the brain of all negroes is less in 
size and weight than the brain of white men by more 
than one-eighth. This is known by actual examina- 
tions of the heads of the two races. — >S'ee Bingham 
on the Brain, p. 21. 

In connection with this appalling truth, it is found 
also that the arms of the negro race are longer than 
the arms of the whites, holding a midway relation 
between white men and monkeys in this particular. 
This was found to be so by Dr. AVhite, who meas- 
ured the arms of nearly fifty negro skeletons, and in 
all cases were found to have longer arms than whites 
of the same height of person. — iSee Lawrence's Lec^ 
lures on the History of Man, p. 350. 

The whole character of the flesh of the negro race, 
as well as their nerves, seems to be of a coarser char- 
acter, less fine and delicate than is the flesh and 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 255 

nerves of the white race. The skin of their bodies is 
thicker and heavier than is the whites, especially 
about the head. Respecting the females of the Af- 
rican race, it is said that their breasts grow to 
monstrous sizes, hanging down even below their 
waists. — Laiurence^s Lectures, p. 359. This would 
be a beautiful trait of symmetry to be added to the fe- 
male portion of the whites, were the amalgamation of 
the races to become universal. 

It is said, by those skilled in surgical operations 
and dissections of the human body, that the flesh of 
negroes, from the outside to the bone, is of a darker 
color, as well as the blood, than the flesh and blood 
of white men. And why should not this be so, as 
the character, or animal, if we may so speak, is 
wholly a diflerent creature from the white human 
animal 1 In relation to the lower orders of animals, 
is it not true that there is a great diflerence in the 
texture and nature of their Jlesh in many particulars? 
This is known to the most unobserving, and why 
should it be wondered at, when we assert that the 
same rule or circumstance exists between white men 
and negroes, and quite as much as their looks in- 
dicate. 

Amalgamation with them, therefore, proposes not 
only the blackening of the skin, but of the blood and 
flesh, even to the bone, as well as the deterioration 
of the mental facuUies of the progeny of the whites. 
It is stated by Herodotus, that the very semen of the 
African negro, in his time, was black, which is equal- 
ly true at the present — or at least it is of a dark blue- 
ish tinge, of which any man may convince himself, 



256 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



if he is deeply desirous of physiological information. 
Would not such a course be a species of blasphemy^ 
by despising the image of God, which is intellectual 
ity, given to the keeping of the white race, 7nore than 
to the blacks ? To cast away, therefore, any portion 
of this image or likeness of God, would be a deed 
too horrible for contemplation. 

Any mingling of the blood of the blacks with the 
whites, is considered by Professor Lawrence, a dete- 
rioration of the mental powers of the progeny produc- 
ed. But, says one (an admirer of the negro race), 
it has never entered the heart of abolitionism to justify 
or aid in the actual amalgamation of the two races ; 
we have only plead for, aided and abetted the doc- 
trine of, the negroes' natural and perfect equality with 
white men, as to their right to freedom and equality, 
with regard to slavery, their mental faculties and 
claim of political elevation in human society. 

Very well, this you have done, as all the world 
knows. But what is the tendency of such a doc- 
trine ? Is it not the high road to amalgamation? If 
the negro race in Christendom, are elevated to a par- 
allel politically with white men, will they not, 
therefore, with this elevation (were it to be effected), 
become eligible to political offices; and thus establish 
the principle on which the election of negro magis- 
trates, judges, legislators and governors, with any 
and all the offices of the civilized world, could be 
effected? Let this principle of political equality be- 
come once established in relation to the blacks, would 
not the odium of marriages between the races be 
greatly lessened ? Would not facilities be afforded 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE 



257 



to the negro race of mingling on equal terms with 
the whites, in relation to all the immunities of soci- 
ety ? If so, then would there not be removed out 
of the way, in the estimation of millions, one great 
obstacle to amalgamation by marriages between the 
races? What propriety, therefore, is there in the 
pretense of some abolitionists, that they by no meaiis 
plead for amalgamation, while they approve of prin- 
ciples and acts, which have for their certain result, 
the amalgamation of black and white, in one great 
and common community. 

But as dreadful as is the contemplation of such a 
state of human society, there are thousands in the 
United States, who, in the fierceness of their zeal, 
for the negroes' mere liberty, would happily forego 
the loss of half their mental powers, and their white 
complexion to boot, if they could but bring about 
this famous equality, and thus make an end of sla- 
very. 

In various conversations which the writer has had 
with violent abolitionists, we have inquired of them, 
whether, in order to carry out their beliefof the negroes' 
absolute equality with white men, they were willing 
that a son or a daughter of theirs, should be united 
with them in marriage? To this question, we could 
seldom receive a direct answer, either yes or no, but 
were generally met by equivocation, as follows : 
" Pray, sir, is there any knc, human or divine, against 
such marriages ?""' 

Here we would urge all the dissimilarities of the 
two races, in their faculties, passions, appetites, for- 
color, looks, and smell: again repeating tho 



mation, 



268 ORIGIN^ CHARACTER, AND 

question — would you be willing that a son or a daugh- 
ter of yours should marry a negro? — but receiving 
almost always the same shuffling reply. By this 
course of theirs, we became, as often as conversation 
of the kind occurred, convinced that these very per- 
sons abhorred the unnatural connection; and yet 
they would not yield the point, for fear of being com- 
pelled to acknowledge their real belief in the fact of 
their absolute inferiority. Yes, we have often heard 
abolitionists remark, that the time will come, when 
all mankind will be of one color, and that will bo 
the yellow or brown, as that the good work of amal- 
gamation of negroes and white men, was going rap- 
idly on in the world ; and this they said with a kind 
of joyful anticipation, as if by that means, negro 
slavery would at last be abolished in the world. Thus 
it is evident, that when a man, or party of men, be- 
come firmly seated on a hohhy horse, its speed is 
never known to slack, till the ruin of horse and 
rider is effected. But although abolitionists affect to 
deny that they are favorable to an amalgamation of 
the whites and blacks, this is contradicted in the 
speech of Wendell Phillips, in the great London 
Abolition Convention, as follows: "When he went 
to America, and told them that he had seen the ichite 
man and black man walk arm in arm, he should not 
be believed. He wished to have it recorded by the 
British press, that the colored man was to be receiv- 
ed in tne same manner as the white." — Pennsylvania 
Freeman, August 6, 1840, No. 204. 

The doctrme is also approved of by Dr. Brownmg, 
who was a member of the London Abolition Conveu- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 259 

tion; see his speech in the "Pennsylvania Freeman," 
August 6, 1840, No. 204, as follows: "There was 
one circumstance (he said) connected with the East 
(meaning the Mohammedan countries), that was jm- 
cuUaiiy interesting, and that was, that there they 
knew of no distinction of color; they had no nobili- 
ty of skin. White men, of the highest rank, married 
black women, and black men frequently occupied the 
highest social and official situations." 

Oh, how happy a thing it would be, in the estima- 
tion of this man, would the Americans only pattern 
after the Mohanmiedan, in this thing, and thus con- 
found the two colors, black and white, and sin against 
God, who made the difference, not to be mingled, but 
to be forever separate. 

But as to the abolishment of negro slavery on such 
grounds as that, it can never be accomplished ; for 
the history of the negro nations, from the earliest 
ages down to the present time, furnishes abundant 
proof that they have enslaved their own race as much, 
and far more cruelly, than either of the other races, 
the red man or the white. 

To prove this, we adduce the following on that 
point: Strabo, an ancient historian, says that the 
Egyptians worked the machinery by which the wa- 
ters of the Nile were elevated, in time of drought, to 
irrigate their lands, by slaves instead of oxen. To 
each of such machines, there were attached one hun- 
dred and fifty slaves of their own color. — Rollin, vol. 
1, p. 133. 

The Carthagenians, a negro people in Africa, who 
at first were a colony from Phoenicia, or old Canaan, 



260 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

had vast hordes of slaves of their own color, whom 
they not only compelled to do their labor, but also, 
in great numbers, sacrificed them annually to their 
gods as burnt offerings. — RoUin, vol. i, p. 223. Han- 
no, an opulent citizen of Carthage, though a black 
man himself, had twenty thousand slaves, by which 
means, at one time, he attempted to usurp the govern- 
ment of his country, but was killed in the attempt. 
Bollm, vol. i, p. 266. 

But, in later times, we find, among the negro tribes 
of Africa, the same practice. Damberge?-, the Ger- 
man traveler, in Africa, says, vol. ii, pages 151 and 
152, that the kings or great chiefs of the tribe called 
Ba-ha-ras, who lived on the river Gambia, or Niger, 
had his subjects in such a condition of vassalage, 
that he sold them as slaves, whenever he would, not 
only victims taken in Avar, but of his own tribe and 
countrymen. 

Another nation he passed through, called Haoiifas, 
who always sold their children, when young, to other 
tribes, in order to avoid the trouble of taking care of 
them in their infancy, and then supplied their place 
by stealing such as were grown larger, to prevent 
their own tribe from running out. — Dmnherger, vol. 
ii, p. 158. The king of the same tribe above named, 
practiced selling all his wives for slaves, at such 
times as he became weary of their con)pany, obtain- 
ing new ones from among his own subjects, whether 
already the wives of other men- or not. 

One tribe he found, who killed all their female 
children, but saved the males, stealing their wives 
from other tribes or taking them in battle. This 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



161 



tribe were called Kan-torrians, and inhabited a tract 
of country on the river Ttutiba, north of the CafFrees 
or Hottentot region. — Datnherger, vol. i, p. 150. This 
author further states, vol. i, p. 173, in a note, that all 
the tribes he fell in with, except the Caffrees, dealt in 
slaves among themselves. 

These slaves they acquired in their wars, not in- 
stigated by white men, but by themselves, as they 
are seldom at peace with each other, and have not 
been in all past ages. Professor Russell says, p. 44, 
of his work, that one of the chiefs of lower Nubia, liv- 
ing at a place called Derr, had an army of three thous- 
and natives, all slaves, procured from the slave deal- 
ers of Dongola, a tribe dwelling further in the inte- 
rior than the Nubians, above named. With these, 
this tiger-man ravaged and plundered distant tribes, 
killing and capturing all who came in his way. 
Derr, his place of residence, was considered the capi- 
tal of lower Nubia, consisting, as to its architecture, 
of vast numbers of 'inud huts, in which dwelt the 
slaves of this horrible negro king, rolling naked in 
mud when it rained, and in dust, ashes, and creeping 
things, when it was dry. M. Cailbe, in 1824, made 
a hazardous journey to the famous negro city, Ti7n- 
bucto, quite in the central part of Africa, who says 
that the people are negroes of the Kissour tribe, and 
that their chiefs have all their work done by slaves, 
who are compelled to live separate from their mas- 
ters, though they are all of one color, and one kind 
of people. This famous city is also but a strag- 
gling, disorderly mass of mud huts and dried 
grass, filled to overflowing with wretched, naked 



262 ORIGIN, CHAKACTEll, AND 

men and women. — Family Magazine, jjages 82 
and 83. 

Why vaked roam, thou negro man, in Afric's horrid wilJ, 
O'er mountains higli, and valleys deep, like a poor homeless child? 
The beasts that dwell amid the woods, are happier far than yon — 
For they have coas of fur and hair, to guard from rain and dew. 
Your soil gives forth the native flax, and other means of dress- 
Why roam, like troops of monkeys wild, o'er all the wilderness 1 
Is not your land both deep and rich, to yield each year anew 
The annual crop, would you but plant, as oUier nations do 1 
Why dwell in huts of grass and mud, and caves, and hollow trees, 
Drench'd by the rains in summer times, and in tlie winter freeze ? 
Is there not stone and rock, and forests deep and green, 
J"rom which good houses you might build, your naked limbs to screen? 
You.' mountains give the miu'ral beds of iron and steel their birth, 
Of whicl. the plow and axe are made, to cultivate the earth. 
The diamond sparkles on your hills, their depths yield golden ore, 
By which mankind ?nricli themselves, and generate all power. 
Why roam, therefore, tnou negro man, like beasts of blood and prey, 
Naked and starv'd, no house or home, like a lost child astray ? 
Ah, mighty white man, ask thou this— poor negro have no trade ; 
He sees no flni, no stone, or tree, from which such things are made ! 
He does not know that gold and trade, with labor infinite, 
Has brush'd away from nature's face the gloom of ancient night. 
His pate is thick, his brain is small, deep buried up in wool — 
He does not Inioic, as white men do, but lives and dies a fool. 
Oh, white man, take us from ourselves, our huts, our holes, our caves ! 
Oh, feed and clothe us, teach us too, and we will be your slaves ! 
For thus it was from earliest time, as we have heard decreed. 
That Ham should serve all other men, and never can be freed. 

Gen. ix, 25 ; Joshua ix, 23. 

There was a missionary, who recently Hved in 
West Africa, at a place called Monrovia, namely. Dr. 
Goheen, who has published to the world, in a paper 
entitled Liberator, that slavery in the United States, 
in its worst form, even under the lash, is not as bad 
as slavery is in Africa. He says, it is a well known 
truth, that nine-tenths of the population are in a state 
of personal slavery. The females are sold at an 
early a^e, to be, as soon as grown up, beasts of bur- 
den, or wives, as their negro owners may require. 
The kings and chiefs of that country, he says, drive 
their own people in droves to the sea, where they sell 
their own blood and color by thousands, to whosoever 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 263 

will buy them. Thus it has always been in Africa, 
ages before the European white man knew any thing 
about the slave trade. Even the famous, and par- 
tially civilized, Carthagenians used to obtain vast 
numbers of slaves from a region of country in Africa, 
inhabited by a people called Goromantes, a powerful 
tribe of the interior, who made it their chief business 
to catch the people of their own color, to sell to the 
Carthagenians. — Heme's Researches in Africa^ vol. 
ii, p. 231. This Avas done ages before the era of 
Christianity, and, of necessity, could not have been 
instigated by European white men. 

Crawford, in his Indian Archipelago, vol. i, pages 
lS-20, states, that there are, in those islands, two races 
of blacks. One of those races is not as black as the 
other, and have straight or long hair, while the other 
race is of a jet black, with u-oolly heads. The 
straight haired race, he says, hold the woolly heads 
in the utmost contempt, making slaves of them where- 
ever they can be caught. The woolly heads are con- 
stantly found in a savage and more wild condition 
than the other race, making no improvements, but 
cleaving entirely to a state of nature, going naked, 
and living wholly on the produce of the wilderness. 
Thus it is made clear, in the above facts, that though 
all mankind were tinged by the negro blood, as some 
abolitionists desire, yet would not slavery be abolish- 
ed, as the negro man has ever been found as ready 
to enslave his own race as are the other nations of 
the earth, no matter whether in a civilized or a bar 
barous state. This is the people — the woolly heads 
of Africa, the most degraded of the human race, who 



264 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



are even thus esteemed by the brown kind of negroes, 
having straight hair, in the same countries — that ab- 
olitionists desire to elevate, politically, to an equality 
with white men, and, of necessity, to become amal- 
gamated with them, by fellowship in marriages, and 
the other immunities of white society. The negro 
race do not, and never were possessed of the common 
sympathies of human nature for their fellows in 
trouble, but treat such circumstances as a thing of no 
account. It is a well known fact, that when a slave 
is punished for a misdemeanor, and cries out under 
the operation, it excites laughter among them, instead 
of tears. They are not a race of people of sufficient 
sympathies or feeling to care much about their own 
sufferings, or their condition of slavery, as a great 
whole, beyond their own individual being, and, in 
millions of cases, not even then — thinking nothing of 
the odium of being a slave, so long as comfort and 
protection is in their individual pessession. Was not 
this trait of their character exemplified in the two 
slaves of the Hon. Henry Clay, when on a trip to 
Canada, some few years since ? While there, the two 
slaves were told by the people, that, as they were on 
English ground, they were /ree, and were urged with 
great vehemence to avail themselves of the happy 
circumstance in their favor, but to no purpose. The 
blacks replied, that they loved their master^ and 
would not leave him, and actually returned with him 
to the south, and to their condition of servitude again. 
Many such instances have taken place. 

This principle of indifierence to the happiness of 
their fellows, is shown, not only in the history of the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 265 

cruelties practiced ill Africa, by the chiefs, upon the 
slaves, but also by the cruelties of the southern slaves 
toward each other, as manifested by the actions of 
the negro slave drivers. In such cases as when an 
owner of slaves happens to advance some more active 
and intelligent negro to overlook the labors of a gang, 
the whip is seen to be in lively exercise, as well as 
the tongue. This is passing strange! 

In further proof of this indifference of the blacks, 
respecting human suffering, we quote the following 
from Barnahas Shaiv^s Memorials of South Africa, 
published at the Methodist Episcopal book-room, in 
New- York, 1841. This author states, page 37, that 
the Namacqua negroes always leave their aged pa- 
rents and the sick to fall a prey to the wild beasts, or to 
die of hunger, whenever they remove from one hab- 
itation to another. This tribe is a branch of the Hot- 
tentot family, who are descended, as is believed, from 
the ancient Egyptians. The bushman negroes are 
guilty of dreadful acts of cruelty toward each other, 
when in a helpless condition. They have no feel- 
ings, says Mr. Shaw, pages 42, 43, 56, toward babes, 
the sick, or their own aged parents, making even a 
boast of it. They will kill their children on the most 
trifling occasion, if not shaped to suit them. If pur- 
sued by an enemy, they will kill the aged: or if very 
hungry, they will eat human flesh. The Cajfree ne- 
groes of that country, he says, page 53, carry their 
sick into the woods to die alone, or to be devoured 
by serpents, wild beasts, or cast into some pit or hole, 
unheeded and forsaken. Mothers, one would think, 
would love and protect their babes, as even this vir- 
12 



266 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

tue is found instinctively possessed even by dumb 
beasts ; and yet we are told by Mr. Shaw, in his work, 
p. 56, that a woman of the Bechuan tribe, offered to 
sell her child to him for some glass beads, who said 
that she loved her child, but that she loved beads far 
better. On the least occasion, says Mr. Shaw, page 
58, they will kill their wives as they would a trouble- 
some dog. 

Insensibility to pain, remarks this author, p. 61, is 
one of the negro faculties ; as they seem not to feel 
when even cut to pieces, nor do they care for their 
fallows when seen in the greatest distress. 

With a view to all these things, and many more 
disgusting particulars, which the reader's discernment 
will not fail to suggest, how is it possible that any 
white man on the face of the earth can be found, who 
in his heart is willing to have the races become one 
oy amalgamation ? To the writer, such a desire 
seems to be a kind of monstrosity, a hideous night- 
mare, a frightful incubus, chattering and grinning on 
the bosom of the soul, driven on, and on, as by a 
devil in mockery, for the crime of believing in, and 
desiring the union of, white blood with black. 

There are not wanting under this baleful influence, 
cases in the land, even among the refined and opu- 
lent, who have lent and are lending their influence to 
the ultra objects of abolitionism; and also, who 
have bowed down themselves in the sight of the 
Heavens and the earth, to the very dust, in compli- 
ance to negroes, desiring thereby to have it believed 
that they do most heartily espouse the notion of the 
black men's intellectual equality with themselves. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 267 

And then, with effrontery enough to look a tiger out 
of countenance, have braved the common and popu- 
lar indignation, forming a mighty contrast between 
their apparent humility and lowly deference of the 
negro, and then* dauntless impudence toward those 
who cannot, for the sake of the image of God, sub- 
scribe to this blasphemy against nature. 

We are acquainted with occurrences of this de- 
scription, when a negro man has been petted, caressed, 
and almost seemingly adored, by proud, scornful and 
aristocratic white men, who, taking the negro by the 
arm with affected politeness and attention, have led 
and escorted the black to the best seat in a superb 
carriage, and from thence in pomp and array, to a 
place of public entertainment. Yes, we have under- 
stood, that, in the city of New York, there was a cer- 
tain opulent gentleman, who, under the frightful 
influence of the negro abolition jnania, went so far 
with the horrible phrenzy, as to force negroes upon 
the notice and attention of his daughters, in his own 
house, and thus insult his own blood, and that of the 
whole white part of creation. 

Can such doings be sincere? We have no confi- 
dence in the smcerity of such professions. The very 
pretenders feel appalled at heart, and loathe the un- 
natural approximation ; yes, the very negroes them- 
selves know better, and laugh at the hypocrisy and 
nonsense of the whole farago; but, nevertheless, 
they are willing to be petted, as long as the con- 
spirators against the order of God in the creation 
may be under (he influence of this extraordinary 
polilical spasm, which will endure just as long and 



268 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

no longer, than when their poUtical object is attained 
or lost. 

If, indeed, the negro race are worthy the attention 
bestowed upon them at the present time, how is it 
that they do not put forth the arm of mental power, 
and convince mankind that their abolition friends are 
worthily bestowing their energies for their benefit? 
How is it that the people and government of San 
Domingo, who are now free and politically indepen- 
dent, have never petitioned the different governments 
of Christendom, who have slaves, for the elevation 
of their race by education? How is it that they, 
who were able to massacre their masters, and to plun- 
der their houses, ravish their wives and daughters, 
and to riot till ghitted in rapine and plunder, have 
not poured out their eloquence on the ear of mankind, 
arising out of the rich fund of their mental powers, 
and wrought upon their sympathies, deluged the 
world with arguments, heaped up like mountains in 
favor of the negro race — thus putting the nations and 
countries to the blush at the thought of enslaving 
a people so high minded and patriotic, so noble and 
pure in principle, a race possessed of (he sweetest 
and liveliest moral powers and feeling, each man of 
them longing and desiring the improvement of his 
people more, far more, than his own individual hap- 
piness ? But this they have not done, and we have 
doubts whether they even care much about it, in the 
patriotic sense of the word. Nay, the very papers 
which are published in America for their especial 
advancement, are, in a great measure, if not wholly, 
got up and supported by white men. How is this? 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



269 



If they are a race of oppressed human bekigs, who 
are worthy of a better fate, and are grieving and 
struggUng to rise to common equahty, how is it that 
the whole labor of the attempt is exerted by another 
race of people than themselves? 

Were the negro population of the southern states 
of the Union elevated to political equality with white 
men, and the doctrine of amalgamation allowed, 
which would be the certain consequence of such 
equality, would such a change in their favor secure 
contentment? our answer is, no, it would not, except 
they could have the exclusive rule. In their very 
being the God of nature has raised up a barrier 
between the two races, which cannot be passed with- 
out incurring consequences of the most revolting 
character. 

To set the negroes free in all America, and to be- 
stow upon them political equality, while, at the same 
time amalgamation should be penally resisted by 
death or perpetual imprisonment to both parties, there 
would arise out of such a state of the case all the 
horrors of hatred and confusion, violence and assas- 
sinations, that can be conceived of. There is a nat- 
ural dislike of the races toward each other, on which 
account, were the negroes made politically free, with- 
out the privilege of intermarrying with the whites, 
there would soon arise quarrels and discontent ; as 
tlie possession of mere political liberty, without all 
the other immunities of white society, would not and 
could not satisfy them. Nothing short of the most in- 
tense attention could prevent jealousies on their part; 
nor even this, as the knowledge of their own inferiority 



270 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

would always promote that passion, even where, on 
the part of the white man, there should be no intention 
to grieve or to give causes of discontent. The races 
are two kinds of men, constituted entirely different, 
in both body and soul ; on which account there can 
be no union or fellowship between the two, on the 
ground of common equality, except by amalgamation; 
which would be, were such a thing to come to pass, 
a imiversal retrograde from the moral ima^e of God 
toward the condition of brutes; inasmuch as that the 
intellectuality of the white race would be destroyed 
from off the earth, and merged in the thick skulls of 
the negroes. 

There has been, from the earliest time, a decided 
dislike existing between the two races, so much so, 
that the fact has not escaped the notice of the ancient 
historian. Between the Romans and Carthagenians 
there was eternal hatred and war; and it is the same 
at the present time in feeling every where, as the 
negro knows his own inferiority, and therefore hates, 
iw his heart, the white man, because of the difference, 
and wishes to have the iipjier hand. 

There is but one way to settle this great difficulty 
between the races, which is, to make the whole fam- 
ily of man, of but one color, as it was at first, and 
of but one general character, as to intellect. But 
thus God has not seen fit to do, in relation to this 
matter ; he, therefore, who goes about to mix and 
confound that which God has set apart by an in- 
dellible mark, is a disorganizer and is worthy of 
transportation from this earth to some place without 
the pale of the luiivcrse, where he could cogitate 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 271 

alone the beauties of negro amalgamation with the 
blood of white men. 

As when a black'iiing cloud obscures the light, 
And turns the beauteous day half way to night — 
Or as some devil's hand on ruin set, 
Should dip all flowers in a dye of jet: 
'Twould be like him who pleads, oh, foul disgrace, 
To stain with negro blood the white man's face! 
And worse than this, more drear, more hell-refined, 
He'd sink in darkness deep the moral mind — 
And say all bloods are equal, all, all one state, 
And thus would mingle that which God did separate. 
Would with Japhet's blessing of the great •' yojn," 
Imbue, confound and mix, the curte of Ham. 



272 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



\ 

ELEVENTH SECTION. 

Inquiries whether the statements of Noah, respecting the race of Ja- 
pheth, or the white nations, enslaving the descendants of Ham, 
have been fulfilled, and are now in progress to that effect — Num- 
ber of the sons of Japheth — Their great power — Countries they 
settled at first — Nations now known of that progeny — First cities 
built by them, which was earlier than any of the others — Descrip- 
tion of the first operations of men near Ararat, during Noaii's 
life-time after the flood — Respecting Melchisedek, who he was, 
which is in connection with the subject — Travels of Shem among 
the first settlements — W orship of Baal, or the fly god, now among 
the Africans — Nimrod and the wild beasts, with a plate — Shem, 
the son of Noah, was Melchisedek — Setons, the first city of man- 
kind after the flood, built by the whites — First instances on a great 
scale of white men enslaving the race of Ham in ancient times, 
and respecting its continuance — Certainty of the fulfillment of 
God's decrees, and the veracity of the Scriptures — Strictures on 
the opinions of abolitionists — Their opposition to the Bible if it 
upholds slaver}' — Views of St. Paul respecting negro slavery, as 
set forth in the New Testament — Vast Numbers of slaves in the 
Roman empire in St. Paul's time — Their dreadful condition — Cu- 
rious opinion of abolitionists, as a reason why Christ did not re- 
prove slavery — Nimrod and the tower, with other matters. 

Having in the previous and last section, treated on 
some of the horrors of amalgamating the white and 
black races, we come now to inquire whether the 
prophecy of Noah, commonly called the curse of 
Noah, upon Ham and his progeny, has been fulfilled, 
in relation to the part Jaj)heth and his race were to 
perform toward enslaving them, as well as the part 
Shem and his progeny. were to accomplish, in fulfill- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NE«RO RACE 



273 



ment of the same thing. That such an event was 
to take place, is as certainly specified in that decree, 
as that the race of Shem should in part fulfill it, as 
is seen they did, during the whole history of the He- 
brew race, and are now fulfilling it, in all parts of 
the earth, where the descendants of iSheni and IIa7n 
are found. It should be recollected that Japheih's 
race had nothing to do in the conquest of the great 
negro country called Canaan, Phcenicia, Palestine, or 
the Holy Land. Those wars were carried on wholly 
by the Jews, continuing from the days of Moses, to 
the time Judea became a part of the Roman empire, 
but a liitle while before Christ. 

During all these ages, the progeny of Japheth were 
peopling the regions of the north around the Caspian 
and Black Seas, Georgia, Circassia, Astracan, Tarta- 
ly, &c., north, and west and northwest, now called 
the countries of Europe : as Turkey, Austria, Prussia, 
Paissia, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Germany, and 
the islands of the north Atlantic; the Divine Provi- 
dence reserving the later ages, for the fulfillment of 
that part of his decree, which was to be performed 
by Japheth toward the race of Ham. 

Japheth, the great ancestor of all the white na- 
tions of the earth, was the father of seve?i sons, whose 
names, according to 1 Chron., 1st chap., and Jose- 
phus's Antiquities of the Jews, were Gomer, Magog, 
Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras; all of 
whom had also many sons, who, branching off in 
their several posterities in the regions above named, 
became the heads of a multitude of nations of white 
men, and, in the course of time, of multitudes of 



274 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

languages. Moses gives the same account as above, 
Gen. X., from tJie 1st to the 5th verse inclusive, and 
adds, that by these the descendants of Japheth "were 
the isles of the Gentiles (or Japhethites), divided in 
their lands, every one after his tongue, after iheii 
families, in their nations." 

From GoMER, the first son, came the ancient Go- 
me rites or Galatians, to whom St. Paul wrote two of 
his epistles, a people dwelling- far north of Judea, 
about the Euxine Sea, on the very eastern borders of 
Europe. 

From Magog, the second son, came the Magogites, 
whom the Greeks in their histories of the nations 
coeval with themselves, call Scythians or leather 
dressers, whose region of country was along the bor- 
ders of Tartary, including Bucharia, and probably 
Tartary itself, who were the great ancestors of many 
of the white nations of Europe and America. 

From Madai and Javan, the third and fourth sons, 
came the Medes and Persians, of ancient times, whose 
country lay between the Gulf of Persia and the Cas- 
pian Sea, as well as further east. 

From Tubal, the fifth son, came the Tubalites, 
Iberians or Celts, ancestors of several of the nations 
of Europe also, as the French, Italians, Spanish and 
Portugese, and the early Greeks of the Archipelago. 

From Meshech, the sixth son, came the Capado- 
cians, or ancient Germans and Russians, with all that 
variety of nations and languages. 

From TiRAS, the seventh son, came the ancient 
Thracians, whose places of settlements were about 
the western and northern coasts and islands of the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 275 

Mediterranean. All these nations, however, in the 
earliest time, and much more in succeeding ages, es- 
pecially in the regions of Europe, were mingled by 
amalgamation, as was right and natural, being all 
the descendants of the same ancestor, Japheth, a son 
of Noah. 

One of their great cities, that is of the Tliracians, 
was the famous Troi/j which, in the time of David, 
B. C. 1100, was in its glory, and stood inland from 
the Mediterranean about twelve miles north, on a 
rising ground, and in that age was the capital of iheir 
country. The latitude of ancient Troy, or Troja, was 
40° north, and longitude 16°, more than a thousand 
miles west of Turkey, on the promontory of Italy, 
near where Rome was afterward built. Here it was 
that Dai'damis, one of the immedite descendants of 
Tlras, the seventh son of Japheth, the grand-son 
of Noah, founded the city of Troy, which at first 
was called Dardania, as Dardanus was its first king. 
Afterward it was called Troja, or Troy, from Tros, 
the grand-son of Dardanus. After this it was called 
Ilium, from Jlus, the son of Tros. 

This region was among the earliest settlements 
of the sons of Japheth, and especially of that branch 
who were the ancestors of the ancient Greeks, who 
had migrated westward from the sources of the Eu- 
phrates, in the region of the Black Sea, where the 
ark rested, quite to the northern coast of the Medi- 
terranean in the country of Italy, so called from the 
word Ilium, the name of ancient Troy. From this 
branch of the house of Japheth, by the lineage of 
Tiras, descended also the Latins, the progenitors 



276 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



of the ancient Romans, whose history is well known 
to the world. 

Thus we see, how immense were the coimtries of 
the white race, as well as the greatness of their pow- 
er. Alexander the Great was a Greek, and a white 
man, who conquered, as it is said, the world, and wept 
because there was nothing more to conquer. 

By this view, we see that God carried forward, in 
the very first ages, the fortunes of Japheth, in that of 
his race, to great power, as he had said by the mouth 
of Noah should be accomplished; M'hich was, that 
he would enlarge Japheth, until he should dwell in 
the tents of Shcrn^ and hold the descendants of Ham 
as slaves (Gen. ix, 27, Avhere both these events are 
foretold and decreed). 

But, before we proceed further to show the fulfill- 
ment of Noah's prophesy, in relation to Ham's race 
being enslaved by the whites of Japhetb's progeny, 
and of his dwelling in the tents or countries of >S'Aem, 
we shall indulge our pen in giving some probable ac- 
count of Noah and Shem, after the annunciation of 
the decrees respecting all Noah's sons during their 
lives. There can be no doubt but Noah remained 
where he first settled, after leaving the place of the 
resting of the ark, on account of his great age, and 
the improvements made there on his first plantation, 
by the aid of his sons and grandsons, before they be- 
gan to leave the paternal home, for the sake of their 
respective families. 

That Noah became a farmer, is shown by a remark 
of Moses, Gen. ix, 20, who there says that Noah be- 
gan to be a husbandman. Here it was, not far from 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 277 

the eastern end of the Black Sea, in latitude 40° north, 
and longitude 40° east, being about three thousand 
miles from the island of England, in a south-easterly 
direction, that Noah dwelt. Were one to go from 
England to the south-eastern end of the Black Sea, he 
would pass, in following a straight line from London, 
through the straits of Dover, and the countries of 
Brussel, Germany, Austria, Turkey, and nearly the 
whole length of the Black Sea, before he would ar- 
rive at the region of country where Noah lived after 
the flood. Here it was that his children, and children's 
children, even to the tenth generation, visited him 
during the three hundred and fifty ye;\rs that he lived, 
after the flood; as it was at this place that an altar 
to the living God was erected, to which that part of 
his children, the descendants of Shem and Japheth, 
resorted, who adhered to the religion of Noah, while 
Ham and his race turned recreant and followed the 
idolatry of Nimrod. 

Among the foremost of the sons of Noah, was Shem, 
who attained to such a height of religious purity, that 
he became, not only by the Divine sanction as well 
as by his birthright, God's only high-priest^ in those 
ages, consisting of five hundred years ; from whose 
lips the primitive people received a knowledge of the 
true religion ; who, spreading out in all directions in 
process of time, over the Avhole world, carried with 
them this knowledge, out of which has arisen all the 
various ideas of supernatural religion which now pre- 
vail over the globe, but distorted and foreign to the 
original truth. 

We have said above, that Shem. the son of Noah, 



278 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

became God's high-priest, for it was Shem who was 
the real Melchisedek, the righteous king of Salem, 
who is spoken of by Moses, Gen. xiv ; by David, 
Psalms ex, 4, and by St. Paul, Hebrews vii, 1. This 
man, the son of Noah, Shem by name, and Melchise- 
dek by appellation, was, of all men who have lived 
since the flood, the best qualified to instruct the peo- 
ple of those first ages, during the five hundred years 
of his life after the flood. As he was born more than 
a hundred years before the flood, he must have 
acquired a vast amoimt of antediluvian knowledge, 
as well as unbounded influence among the then 
young tribes and nations, of that part of the world, 
after the flood. He could tell them all about the insti- 
tutions, arts, agriculture, commerce, science, and 
the extent of the antediluvian population; with every 
particular respecting the location of the garden of para- 
dise, the tree of life, the tree of knowledge, the creature 
called the serpent ; the size and stature of Adam, and 
of men in general; the forerunners, or supernatural 
;>igns, of the flood ; the opinions of the people about it, 
and respecting his father's building the ark; where 
the ark was built, and what course it was borne on 
the waters; \\\e circwnstance of Enoch's translation; 
what the promise of the seed of the woman meant ; 
his opinion of the Messiah, as well as of the power 
which caused the serpent to speak, and use articulate 
sounds, or language; and whether Adam, as Jewish 
tradition relates, prophesied of the ruin of the world 
by ivatcr first, and then by Jire at last ; with thousands 
of other amazingly interesting matters. 

Shem, or iMelchisedek, over-lived his father Noah 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 279 

one hundred and fifty years ; and the patriarch Abra- 
ham, nearly fifty; and, of consequence, was acquaint- 
ed with Isaac, the son of Abraham. From this man 
all the patriarchs, from Arphaxad down to Isaac, com- 
prehending five hundred years, received a knowl- 
edge of the true God, and the religion of Adam, Seth, 
Enoch, and all the patriarchs before the flood, down 
to Isaac, from whom Jacob, the son of Isaac, derived 
the same, and transmitted it to the twelve tribes of 
the Jews, his sons, 

Noah was acquainted, and was contemporary, with 
Abraham sixty-four years before he, with his father, 
Tcrah^ left the country of Ur, in Chaldea, east of the 
Euphrates, and went to Haraii, in Canaan, the coun- 
try of the Hamites. He was also contemporary with 
all the patriarchs born between the flood and the time 
Abraham was sixty-four years old ; which was ten 
generations. He was contemporary with Arphaxad, 
the son of Shem, and his family — with Salah, the son 
of Arphaxad, and his family — with Ebcr, the son of 
Salah, and his family — with Peleg; the son of Eber, 
and his family — with Reii, the son of Peleg, and his 
family — with iSo'iig; the son of Reu,and his family — ■ 
with Naho7', the son of Serug, and his family — with 
Terah, the son of Nahor, and his family — with Abj'a- 
ham, the son of Terah, and his family — before his 
marriage with Sarah, while Katura, the first wife of 
Abraham, was alive, and probably until his marriage 
with his last wife, Sarah. Thus Noah reached the 
sixty-fourth year of Abraham's life, three hundred 
and fifty years after the flood. 

But Shem goes en. with the acquaintance of his 



280 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



hwise, Japlieth's and Ham's, one hundred and fifty 
years further down the course of time, over-living 
Abraham, and reaching to nearly fifty years of the 
life of Isaac, and nearly, or quite, down to the birth of 
Jacob and Esau ; for Isaac was married to Rebecca, 
ten years before the death of Shem, or Melchisedek. 
But, says one, could Noah and Shem visit so many 
thousands and tens of thousands of their progeny, in 
order to become acquainted with those early tribes of 
men, and communicate to them useful knowledge, 
such as we have alluded to above? The answer is, 
they could not, nor was there any necessity of such 
a thing; as there was a much easier way, and this 
was, that all the patriarchs of those ages, and their 
children, would, and no doubt did, out of love and 
respect to Noah, as well as out of love to the first 
altar raised to the worship of God, where his voice 
had been heard audibly, blessing Noah and his house. 
Gen. ix. The ark and this altar, as well as the per- 
son of Noah, would, and no doubt did, attract some 
out of love, and thousands out of curiosity, to visit so 
noted a place, and so great a man as was Melchise- 
dek, the priest of the house of Noah, and the first 
races of men after the flood. On these accounts, there 
can be no doubt but the residence of Noah was the 
grand resort of all his progeny, except Ham's, during 
those ages, till his death ; and of caravan after cara- 
van from every direction, consisting of camels, drom- 
edaries, horses, asses, elephants and oxen, laden with 
riders, food for themselves on the way, and gifts for 
Noah and the altar, over v^-hich the princely Shem 
presided, as the high-priest of God. But Ham and 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 281 

his posterity rebelled against the religion of Noah 
and Shem, and the other patriarchs, under the rule 
of the terrible Nimrod, the grandson of Hcvni and 
son of Cash — Nimrod being the black king of Babel, 
who was the first sovereign and tyrant of the age, as 
well as the abettor of idolatry. On this account, it 
is not likely that the descendants of Ham, nor Ham 
himself, would visit Noah, as they remembered the 
curse, and their doom to servitude to be accomplished 
sooner or later. 

In accordance with this conjecture, founded on 
Jewish tradition, namely, that Nimrod headed the 
great rebellion of his time against Noah and Shem's 
religion, we relate the following: The Hottentot ne- 
groes of Africa, who, as contended by Barrows, page 
281, are the descendants of the ancient Egyptians, 
and who (see Cook's Voyages, page 103) refuse to 
worship the greatest of the gods, whom they call 
Goun-ya Taquoa, or the God of gods, because, as 
they allege, he cursed their parents for a certain verj'- 
great sin. In this reason of theirs, for not worship- 
ing that great God, is there not a direct and plain tra- 
ditionary allusion to the curse of Noah, and in that ) 
curse the decree of God against Ham and the negro ^ 
race, which took place in the aflair of Ham's seeing 
his father in his repose. That the Hottentots are de- 
scended from the negroes of Egypt and Canaan, is 
evident from their great veneration of a certainly, or 
bug; which is of a bright gold color, and v/liich they 
worship in ecstasies as a god. Baalzahuh, or a certain 
Jly, of old Canaan, was worshiped by the Canaan- 
ites, and is the same so often alluded to in the Bible. 
12* 



282 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



Peculiar traits of religion, like the one just noticed 
are strong evidences of the lineage of a people, as re- 
ligious impressions and usages are the last to be ob- 
literated of any other human impressions. Thus it 
is evident, that, from the days of Nimrod, the great 
rebel against God and his religion, down to the Hot- 
tentots, as well as among all the negro tribes of Afri- 
ca, there has been a marked opposition to the virtuous 
religion of Noah, more than has marked the opposi- 
tion of all the other nations of the earth put together. 
And, as a further proof that Nimrod alone, with his 
house, family, and tribes, were the projectors and 
builders of Babel, we notice that Moses says, Gen.x, 
10, that Babel, with other cities, was the beginning 
oniis kingdom. If, then, Babel was the beginning 
of Nimrod^s kingdom, then, of necessity, it was not 
the possession nor the dwelling of either the other 
sons of Noah, but that of Nimrod alone, as the text 
reads. According to the reading of a part of the 
eleventh chapter of Genesis, it would seem that all the 
people of the house of Noah were engaged in the 
project and building of Babel. But this was not so, 
as the scheme was lor the advancement of idolatry, 
a scheme in which Noah and Shem could have had 
no hand. The confusion of the language, therefore, 
was confined to the people who were engaged on the 
tower, and to notie else ; the house of Noah, Shem, 
and Japheth, remaining, as to this matter, as they 
were ; and even the negroes may have easily, after 
their dispersion, have recovered their mother tongue, 
as the confusion was miraculous, and meant only to 
affect their speech for the time being, not formmg 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 283 

thereby any new languages ; which is evident from 
the fact that Abraham, the Hebrew, some hundreds 
of years after this occurrence, had no difiicuUy in 
conversing with the Egyptians, one branch of the 
house of Ham, at the time he and his wife went to 
Egypt, on account of the famine in the land of Ca- 
naan, of which we have before spoken. 

This people, therefore, in the time of Nimrod, did 
not visit Noah, as by this means they would have 
been better instructed ; it was, therefore, the policy of 
Nimrod and his coadjutors, to draw a line of separa- 
tion between his people and those who adhered to the 
religion of Noah. The tomb of Noah is, no doubt, 
at the identical spot where that^r^^ altai- was erect- 
ed, and where his wife was also buried, not far from 
the foot of Moimt Ararat. Nimrod, as is stated in the 
book of Genesis, was a leading hunter^ and above all 
men was the most powerful, fearing no wild beast 
that roamed the forest. On this account, no doubt, 
it was that he derived his great popularity among the 
people of his race ; as in every age, especially among 
semi-barbarians and savages, the gigantic and fierce 
have become the objects of veneration, and of deifi- 
cation after death. In this way, Nimrod became the 
first Hercules, always represented as being clothed in 
the shaggy skin of some monster he had slain, as 
well as bearing in his hand an enormous club, with 
which he slew all animals that came in his way — 
[See plate]. 

The reader may desire to know why we assume 
that Shem was the Melchisedek of the Scriptures, 
and the man who blessed Abraham as he came vie- 



284 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



torious from the battle with the kings who had recon- 
quered the Sodomites. We assume it, first, because 
the Jewish Rabbi say that he was Shem, the son of 
Noah, and certainly they had the means of knowing. 
And, second, because no other man had a right to the 
priesthood of Noah's house but Shem, as it was his 
by birthright, or by the gift of God, as he was the an- 
cestor of Jesus Christ, according to the flesh. 

During the five hundred years of Shem's life, after 
the flood, he, no doubt, visited all the settlements 
which were made by his own sons, the sons of Ham, 
as well as those of Japheth, giving them instruction 
in religion, the arts, agriculture, astronomy, geometry, 
letters, and arithmetic ; as all these were known, un- 
derstood, and practiced, before the flood ; and Shem 
was born more than a hundred years before that 
event. He had time to visit Mezar'wi in Egypt, 
Cush in Ethiopia and Asia, Phut in Lybia, and Ca- 
naan in old Phoenicia, or the Holy Land. He had 
also time to visit the earlier settlements of Japheth, 
who had wandered westward in Europe, as well as 
far north of Ararat, and to communicate to the white 
tribes of his brother the same great things he had to 
all the others. 

With this view of the character of Melchisedek, or 
Shem, the son of Noah, it is no wonder that St. Paul, 
a man of immense literary acquirements, should say 
as he did, Hebrews vii, 4: "Now consider how great 
this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abra- 
ham gave the tenth of the spoil ;" calling him better 
than Abraham, in point of eminence; placing him 
above all other men on the earth, on account of his 



FORTLfKES, OF THE KEGRO RACE. 285 

wisdom, goodness and great age — for at the time he 
blessed Abraham, on his return from the battle with 
the kings of Shinar, he was five hundred and fifty- 
two years old, and lived after that ninety-eight years. 

No doubt, therefore, but that he often visited the 
city Seyons, which was built by the house of Ja- 
pheth immediately after the flood, and was located 
north of ancient Persia, near the southern end of the 
Caspian Sea, in the very neighborhood of Mount Ara- 
rat ; and was doubtless the great mart of trade to tlie 
first settlements of the children of Japheth, along the 
coasts of that sea, and the rivers which run into it. 
Javan, the same whom we have mentioned in con- 
junction with 3Iadi, ancestors of the Medes and Per- 
sians, both sons of Japheth, and the founders of the 
city »Se]/Q?is, which was built two hundred and 
thirty-three years before the birth of Abraham, and 
but fifty-nine years after (he flood. — Rollin, vol. ii, 
page 222. 

From this fact, there can be no doubt but the race 
of Japheth, were the builders of many other cities, 
towns and villages, as well as Seyons, They were 
the builders of ancient Ti-oi/, in Greece, and of Ci/- 
reiie, in African Lybia, all great cities, and many hun- 
dred miles asunder from each other. 

Here we see, that if the children of Japheth at 
that early period, occupied the space between the Cas- 
pian and the Black Seas, and Greece along the Med- 
iterranean, which is now known as Turkey in Europe, 
how great an empire or country they were spread 
over, by which we perceive (he hand of Providence 
in their greatness, preparing thorn to fulfill the things 



2S6 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

which were foretold by Noah they were to accomplish 
toward the races of Shem and Ham. 

This ISeyons, founded by Javan, one of the sons 
of Japheth, was, therefore, the first and eldest city 
of mankind after the flood in all probability, as it 
stood much nearer to Ararat, the place of Noalvs 
dwelHng and the Ark, than did the cities of Ham, 
further down the Euphrates, in the country of Shinar, 
Babel and Babylon. It appears that white men, the 
descendants of Japheth, actually, in the very first ages, 
found their way into the heart of Africa, as a colony, 
and built the city of Cyrene, the capital of negro 
Lybia. — Watson^s Historical Dictionary^ f. 584. 
This was a Grecian colony. If, then, the Lybian 
negroes were indebted to white men for the origin 
of their capital city in those early times, how much 
may not the ancient Egyptians have been also indebt- 
ed from the same source? 

Thus we are prepared to notice the first instance, 
on the page of history, of the beginning of the ac 
complishment of the prophecy of Noah, respecting the 
rule and predominance of Japheth over the races of 
Shem and Ham. This began to take place, as noticed 
on the page of history, on a great scale, not till about 
twelve hundred years after the curse of Noah, and 
about the same length of time B. C. This we derive 
from Herodotus, chapter ii, p. 254, who says that the 
Greeks in the time of Troy, full twelve hundred 
years before the time of Christ, had black slaves. 
Then after this, it is seen that they were greatly en- 
slaved by the Greeks, in the times of Philip, of Mac- 
edon and his son, Alexander the Great. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 2S7 

The countries Alexander subjected to his arms, 
was tlie old Assyrian empire, who were of the race 
of Shem^ settled along on the Euphrates, sometimes 
called Chaldea. He Avent quite to Jerusalem, south, 
and even to Egypt. He also made war upon, and 
reduced to personal slavery, in the literal sense of the 
word, such of the Canaanites, as had, after the times 
of David and Solomon, taken root again in old Pal- 
estine or the Holy Land. In this country he destroy- 
ed the city of Tyre, one of the eldest cities of ancient 
Phoenicia, in the country of Canaan, which neither 
David nor Solomon molested, on account of Hiram, 
its king, and sold the people, both high and low for 
slaves. 

At that time, the Jews bought thousands of the ne- 
groes of Tyre, and sold them again to the Sahcans^ 
a people of Arabia, as was foretold should take place 
by the prophet Joel. This people, the old Canaanites 
or citizens of Tyre, and its country, after being thus 
entirely broken up and sold as slaves, multiplied 
greatly in the Grecian' countries, as they do always 
in all countries in a state of servitude, but vjere ev- 
erywhere held as slaves by the white men of those 
times, being bought and sold the same as they are 
now in the southern States. 

But this was not all ; for the Romans^ who were 
also the descendants of Japheth, as well as all the 
Grecian tribes and nations, bought and sold negroes, 
even down to the time of the apostles, and for many 
ages after, by thousands and millions. And when 
the Romans were swallowed up by the northern na- 
tions, the same as the Romans had done to the Greeks 



288 ORIGIN, CHARACTEEj AND 

and other countries, those same northern hordes, who 
were the descendants of Japheth, continued the prac- 
tice of enslaving black men, all these revolutions of 
countries, states, empires and kingdoms, making no 
difference in this particular, with the doomed race. 
Such as the Greeks did not conquer and enslave, the 
Romans did; for it was they, in the victories of Scij)- 
io, who destroyed the vast empire of butchering 
Carthage in Africa, a colony at first, from the land of 
negro Canaan, who, under Dido, a female, about the 
time of Ahab, some seven hundred years B. C, 
pitched their tents on the African side of the Medi- 
terranean. 

Of the millions of this confused empire, hundreds 
of thousands were sold, the descendants of whom 
were held in perpetual bondage, as personal slaves, 
during the existence of the Roman government. And 
after that event, the fall of the Roman empire by the 
sword of the northern nations, who were also the de- 
scendants of Japheth, except the Huns, the negroes 
of Carthage, as well as all the race, who had been 
enslaved by Greek or Roman, still, in their posterity, 
remained slaves among the mingled tribes, revolu- 
tions, convulsions and the overturn of empires, ma- 
king no difference with their fate. 

After this the Turks, who are the descendants of 
/a/>/ie//i, conquered all the regions of the east, includ- 
ed in Asia Minor, as Judea, and the rest of old Ca- 
naan, Persia, Syria, Armenia, &c.; so that the negro 
race, who yet remained in their ancient country, were 
utill further reduced to personal slavery till none were 
left free. — Newton on the Prophecies, page 18. But 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



280 



the subject of the fulfillment of Noah's prophecy, or 
(he decree of God, respecting the slavery of the race 
of Ham by Japheth, or the white race, stops not here; 
for all the nations of Europe and Asia Minor, from 
the days of Alexander the Great, more or less, have 
sought after the negro for a slave, even in their na- 
tive haunts, in Africa and the islands. 

America, too, has done this in both hemispheres, 
ever since its discovery by Columbus, so that the 
race of Japheth, though dwelling on the utmost 
bounds of the earth, and divided by seas and oceans, 
have, under the direction of the providence of the God 
who decreed the negroes' enslavement by the whites 
of Japheth's race, fulfilled that decree. Thus we 
see that no decree of God falls to the ground, and 
never will, as we have said at the beginning of 
the section, though God had reserved the latter ag-es 
of the earth to carry it into efiect. That this is so, 
let no man glory or rejoice, lest he be found glorying 
in the judgments of the Creator, which, as saith the 
Scripture, are his strange work, and thus seem to 
take upon himself the awful responsibilities of award- 
ing to nations and individuals judgments which are 
above us. 

Let him, therefore, who shall enslave any of the 
negro race, do it with reverence, as it was God who 
has made the white man to difier from the black, 
and appointed the destinies, as well as the bounds 
of our habitations, and permitted, in the latter ages 
of the earth, the children of Japheth to enslave the 
people of Ham, as well as he did the descendants of 
Shem in the first ages, both cases being necessary to 
13 



290 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

the veracity of the Scriptures on that identical sub- 
ject. What society of men, or combination of indi- 
viduals, therefore, can turn aside or abohsh the steady 
and determined course of God's will) for we have 
every where held in this work, that the subjugation 
of the race to servitude was judicial, and not fortui- 
tous, but was secured in the very formation of their 
bodies, brains, mental powers, moral character of 
their passions and color of their skin, as well as by 
a written decree, and will be judged at the last day 
according to what they have received, and not ac- 
cording to that which they have not received. But 
notwithstanding the absolute importance that all the 
prophecies of Scripture should be fulfilled, one as much 
as another, yet abolitionists, in their furious zeal for 
the cause of the negro race, make very light of the 
curse of Noah, in the particular of the negro's desti- 
ny, and of that part of the law of Moses, which re- 
lates to the same thing, treating them as of very 
uncertain application, as well as of very little force 
at the present time, merely on account of their very 
great antiquity. 

To prove that this is true respecting them, as we 
suppose them to be unanimous in their published 
opinions on the subject, we shall quote a few remarks 
from one of their news prints, entitled, " The Friend 
of Man,'^ published at Utica, Jan. 15, 1839, under 
the head — " The Facts of Slavery as they ^re," as 
follows: "Remember (says the writer), we are now 
inquiring after facts, not theories : the facts of our 
own age and nation, not those of a dim, antiquity, or 
of a distant reffion. We bring into the court (m^sn- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 291 

ing before the public) the facts belonging to this trial, 
not the facts of a cause that was tried, and decided 
and awarded, two or three thousand years ago," 
From the above quotation of abolitionist effusions, is 
it not certain that the writer of the above remarks, 
in order to turn aside the force of the Bible, on the 
subject of negro slavery therein recognized, has aim- 
ed a deadly shaft from the quiver of his reckless im- 
agination, at the sacred and venerated institutions of 
Moses, by the insidious words "^wo or tliree tJwusand 
years ago; and another at the decree of God, set 
forth by Noah, in the phrase "c?im antiquity?^ The 
whole of the article, as above, was intended as a slur 
upon such as resort to the Scripture to prove that the 
servitude of the negro race is therein allowed and 
justified. 

To the perception of the writer of this work, the 
author of the ^UUm antiquity'^ idea might as well 
have written, that "although Noah did pronounce 
the will and decree of God, in placing the race of his 
son Ham under the ban of servitude to the races of 
both his other sons, Shem and Japheth, that it is now, 
in these enlightened times, entirely antiquated; as 
that was but a transaction of ' dim a7itiquity.''" Sup- 
pose we were to apply this mode of comment to some 
other subjects of Scripture — say, for instance, to the 
promise of the Messiah made to Eve at the time when 
she had fallen from her innocence, by tampering with 
the devil in the disguise of a serpent, Gen. iii, 15, 
called, in that place, the seed of the woman, which is 
the firsl and eldest promise, as well as prophecy, rel- 
ative to ihai character, which is found in the Bibl©, 



292 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



and should say respecting it — Oh, it is too far back 
in time to be allowed any influence now-a-days, as 
it is but a saying of '■'■diin antiquity, ^^ and cannot, 
therefore, apply to these times of/ac^5, superior knowl- 
edge and light! And were we to apply this method 
of comment to the ten commandments of the deca- 
logue, which are of the same date with the grant of 
Moses (Levit.xsv) to the Hebrews,to buy and enslave 
the negroes of Canaan, and should insinuate that 
Ihey, too, are but some words spoken two or three 
thousand years ago, and on that account had lost 
their obligatory force, we should be ranked with those 
who can abuse and pervert the Scriptures to suit the 
times and purposes of wicked and foolish men. 

Yes, so hardened, bold and impudent have many 
of the members of that fearful combination, the abo- 
lition society grown, that they disallow that the Holy 
Ghost inspired Noah at all, at the time he pronounced 
the doom of slavery upon the race of Ham, because 
they say it is preposterous to believe that God would 
commune with such a man as Noah, when he had 
but just awaked from a sleep of drunken inebriation. 
But the reader will remember our vindication of No- 
ah's character on that occasion, in a former page, and 
should never forget, that, notwithstanding this slander 
of abolitionists upon that holy man, for whose right- 
eousness the ark was commanded to be built, and 
mankind preserved in it, the Almighty has seen fit 
to fulfill and carry out, in facts, every iota of that 
decree as then announced, not only as it relates to 
Ham and his people but also to Shem and Japheth. 

To discourage a belief in the minds of the people 



FORTUNES; OP THE NEGRO RACE. 293 

that the Holy Scriptures justify the servitude of the 
negro race, writers and lecturers of the above descrip- 
tion have sacrilegiously dared to lay violent hands 
on a high and venerated circumstance of the Bible, 
namely, that of its antiquity ; as if a subject and 
doctrine, which has become aged, is, therefore, of no 
more influence ; and in this way they endeavor to dis- 
arm those particular passages of the sacred Word, 
which relate to this subject, and thus open the door 
for infidels to laugh at Christianity and its adherents, 
because they refuse to receive only such portions of 
the precepts of that Book as suit their interested opin- 
ions, instead of the whole. But this kind of insinua- 
tion against those who believe the Bible justifies ne- 
gro servitude, is equally against St. Paul, as well as 
the iirojyhets^ on that subject ; for if we find that 
great judge of both law and gospel^ sustaining Mo- 
ses and the Jews in this thing, he, too, as well as 
those who were before him, who believed as he 
seems to have believed on this subject, must be con- 
demned as sinners by abolitionists ; for, be it known, 
that they would rather stamp the Bible into the mire 
of the eartl i, than to receive that opinion, so high have 
they set their dogmatizing feelings above all that is 
sacred and true. 

A specimen of the recklessness of the spirit of abo- 
litionism, is seen like tissue spinning from some open- 
ing crevice in the earth, which covers a subterranean 
lake of fire, in the speech of Mr, G. Bradburn^ of 
Massachusetts, in the great London Abolition Conven- 
tion, as follows: "But then it was said, that slavery 
was advocated and enforced in the Bible. Now, if it 



294 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

were so, with all the veneration he had for that holy 
Book, if it were shown to him that it sanctioned the 
traffic in human flesh, he would throw it from him, 
and learn again his religion and philosophy from the 
flowers of the fields." — Peyinsylvania Frccjnan, Av. 
204, August 6, 1840. From this it is clear, that the 
Bible is of no account with this society, if it happens 
not to coincide with the course of abolitionism. 

But, saj's one, does St. Paul, in his writings of the 
New Testament, anywhere seem to sanction the en- 
slaving of black men ? We will hear what he has 
said, and then judge. See 1 Cor. xx, 21, where both 
the fact of negro slavery and its legal righteousness 
are as plainly, though incidentally, stated, as it is 
in G?n. ix, 25, Levit. xxv, 44-46, or any other doc- 
trine of the Scriptures, elsewhere. In the a^ove 
scripture, St. Paul, in making some remarks on the 
condition of the different classes of men, who were 
converted to Christianity under his as well as the 
preaching of the other ministers of the gospel, says, 
that on account of their being converted to the faith 
of Christ, no man was to forsake his business or call- 
irig; but was to remain as he was, in such a particu- 
lar; showing, thereby, tliat Christianity did not con- 
template the breaking up of the civil relations of the 
count«-y, even as they were then in operation among 
the pe-ople. To make this point clear, he seizes upon 
an extreme case of human calling, which was that 
of slavery, and urges that such a one was to expect 
no change in his temporal affairs, on account of his 
faith in Christ. With a view to impress this very 
principle on the minds of all men in that age, he 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACK. 295 

says, in the above cited chapter of 1 Cor.: "Let 
every man abide in the same calhng [or business] 
wherein he was called [or converted]. Art thou call- 
ed, being a servant [or slave], care not for it ; but if 
thou mayest be made free [personally], use it rather. 
For he that is called, being a servant [or slave], is the 
LonVs free man." That the character here referred 
to by St. Paul, was an absolute slave or bondman, is 
made clear by the words " if thou mayest he made 
free^' as such language could refer to no other than 
to slaves, as all others were politically free. 

On the above statements of St. Paul, Adam Clarke 
has written as follows, though an abolitionist of a 
most determined character : "Art thou converted to 
Christ while thou art a slave, the property of another 
person, and hougltt [not hired] with his money, 'care 
not for it,^ this will not injure thy Christian condi- 
tion ; but if thou canst obtain thy liberty, ^use it 
rather^ — prefer such a state for the sake of freedom, 
and the temporal advantage connected with it. The 
man who, being a slave, and is converted to the Chris- 
tian faith, is the Lord's free man — his condition as 
a slave does not vitiate any of the privileges to which 
he is entitled as a Christian. It is likely that some 
of the slaves at Corinth, who had been converted to 
Christianity, had been led to suppose that their Chris- 
tian privileges absolved them from the necessity of 
continuing slaves, or at least brought them on a level 
with their Christian masters. A spirit of this kind 
might have led to confusion, and to insubordination, 
and brought a just scandal upon the church. It 
was, therefore, a very proper subject for the apostle 



296 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



to interfere in, and to his authority the persons con- 
cerned would, doubtless, respectfully bow." 

At this point, we wish to draw a certain conclusion, 
which is afforded in the above passages in the text 
of St. Paul, and this is it : If the conversion of the 
soul of a slave to God, through faith in Jesus Christ, 
did not, and could not, release him from personal slav- 
ery, in St. Paul's time, how much less, therefore, 
could the mere circumcision of a negro's foreskin, in 
the times of the Jews, which was no conversion of 
the soul, absolve such an one from a condition of 
slavery and servitude. For a bondman to become 
circumcised, say the defenders of abolitionism, under 
the laws of Moses, made him a member of the He- 
brew church or nation, on which account, they con- 
tend that at the jubilees all such bondmen went free, 
the same as did all other Hebrew servants. But the 
above statements of St. Paul, cut otf all probability 
of any such thing in their favor, under the Jewish 
law ; for if the conversion of the soul could not as- 
sist in such a case, under the auspices of Christianity, 
jiow could a mere cut in the flesh of the foreskin of 
a negro Canaanite aid him in a release from slavery, 
and exalt him to freedom without a direct and express 
law on the subject? there was no such law in their 
favor in the Mosaic code, but there was one to the 
contrary. 

We cannot well pass on in the subject till we have 
referred the reader to one or two very singular re- 
marks of Adam Clarke, in the above comment of his, 
on the subject of personal slavery, seeing he was an 
abolitionist: "It is likely (he says) that some of the 



FORTUNES. OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



297 



slaves at Corinth, who had been converted to Christ- 
ianity, had been led to suppose that their Christian 
character absolved them from slavery. A spirit of 
this kind (says Clarke) might have led to confusion 
and to insubordinatioji, and brought a just scandal 
on the church." How different is this language of 
the wisest man of these later ages, from the lan- 
guage of the abolitionists of the present time, who, 
in the most dauntless braggadocia and fierce manner, 
condemn to the flames of an eternal hell all such men 
as own negro slaves — who defy all the powers of 
government and teach the doctrine, that, on account 
of any possible results, whether murder, insurrection, 
a division of the Union, insubordination, good order, 
civil war or loss of our country, are no reasons against 
nor matters of any moment, when compared with the 
inestimable liberty of negro men in this country ! 
But so did not Adam Clarke believe nor teach, neith- 
er did St. Paul, as they had respect to the established 
order of things, and did not wish to encourage insur- 
rection, murder and disorganization, as do abolition- 
ists in their idfra doctrines. 

But the above quotation, from St. Paul's writings 
in the New Testament, on this particular subject, is 
not all that he has said ; see Ephesians vi, 5, as fol- 
lows: "Servants [that is slaves] be obedient to them 
that are your masters, according to (he flesh, with fear 
and trembling, in singleness of heart, as unto Christ.^^ 
This is a most remarkable statement, as it recognizes 
the doctrine of negro slavery, the master as Avell as 
the slave, a state of surveillance and lowly submis- 
sion to such masters, and enjoining obedience to be 



298 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

paid, even to trembling and fear, with absolute sin 
gleness of heart, as unto Christ. 

This language and doctrine is very different fronj 
that of the abolitionists of the present time, who say 
that a negro slave does right, in order to get away 
from his master, to steal his master's horse, his money, 
or any thing else, or to steal from others on the road, 
any thing to aid his flight for liberty. On this sub- 
ject, who now is wrong, St. Paul, the Holy Ghost, 
Adam Clarke, or the abolitionists of America and 
elsewhere, who have mighty deeds yet to achieve in 
the line of politics, bottomed on their negro sympa- 
thies? 

That the servants alluded to by St. Paul, in the 
verse above quoted, referred, to bondmen or absoliito 
slaves, is clear, from the eighth verse of the same, 
Eph. vi, 8, which reads as follows: "Knowing that 
whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same 
shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or 
free.'''' On this verse Dr. Clarke says, that the word 
bond, therein used, means a slave, or one bought with 
money. 

Again, in his letter to a Grecian convert to Chris- 
tianity, whose name was Philemon, a citizen of Col- 
osse, a white man, as the Greeks were white, he 
wrote respecting a slave who had run away from 
Philemon and had come to Rome, where Paul then 
was. This slave's name was Onessimus, who, for 
soma reason or other, had run away, and, happening 
to hear the great orator St. Paul preach, became a 
convert to his principles, respecting Christianity and 
its author. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NCaKO RACE. 299 

In that letter to the slave's master, at verses 10, 
11 and 12, he says, "I beseech [not command] thee 
for my son Onessimus, whom I have begotten [in the 
faith] in my bonds, who, in times past, was to thee 
unprofitable [that is, he had been a bad slave], but 
now profitable to thee and to me : whom I have sent 
again, thou, therefore, receive him that is my own 
bowels." 

On the words, as abovo used by St. Paul, '■'■whom 
J have sent again.p Dr. Clarke says, the Christian 
voligion never cancels any civil relations: a slave on 
being converted and becoming a free man in Christ, 
has no rigid to claim, on that account, emancipation 
from the service of his master. Justice, therefore, 
required St. Paul to send Onessimus back to his 
master. He further says on this case, "there is no 
reason to believe that Onessimus was of the kindred 
of Philemon, and that we must take the term Jlesh^ 
as used in the sixteenth verse of that letter as a refer- 
ence, made by Paul, to the purchase right Philemon 
had in Onessimus; he was a part of his property as 
a slave :" this was his condition. 

Slavery is a civil regulation in this country, which 
abolitionists are aiming to overthrow by applying 
the Scripture principle of benevolence. But as St. 
Paul has not thus attacked shivery, who are theso 
that take it upon them to do this^ in the face of the 
Christian religion and the laws of the Union? 

From the facts of the case of this slave, it is self- 
evident, that his being sent back to his master again, 
was owing to the influence of the Christian religion; 
as, under its sanction, neither the convert nor the 



300 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

minister could, therefore, for a moment withhold the 
claims of justice in this particular. 

Oh, but, says a wide awake abolitionist, to be sure 
the Christian religion allows of no injustice, and on 
that very account that slave should have been set 
free, as there is no greater injustice this side of the 
grave than to enslave a negro man. St. Paul, how- 
ever, has seen fit to judge differently, and has given 
a verdict in favor of the master. Had St. Paul have 
viewed the case, as an abolitionist would have view- 
ed it, he would not have sent the man again to his 
master, he would have told him to remain free where 
he was, or to go whither he would. But as a judge 
in the house of God, he exerted his authority in the 
case, and sent the slave again to his owner, on p?/;-e- 
ly tnoral principles, and no other, or he would not 
have meddled with it at all, as indeed he had no right 
on any other ground. But some contend, and have 
even determined, that, because St. Paul said, at the 
sixteenth verse of his letter to Philemon, that when 
Onessimus the slave should arrive at the house of 
his owner, his master was not to receive him as a 
servant, '■''hut above a servant, a brother beloved'''' — • 
that he was, therefore, manumitted, by the authority 
of the apostle, and from this, they claim that slav- 
erer was thus abolished forever out of the Christian 
Church. 

But such a conclusion will not answer, as it is not 
responded to by other passsages on the same sub- 
ject — and, besides, the entire contrary appears from 
the same apostle's writings. The slave Onessimus, 
had become a Christian, and. in this particular, he 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE, 301 

was exalted to an equality with his master, if that 
master was, in fact, a Christian at heart, as God is 
no respecter of the souls of men, giving grace to all 
alike, when he is sought unto, by black or white. 
This fact had elevated that slave far above his form- 
er character as a sinner, and a very bad and unprof- 
itable slave, as Paul says he had been ; yet, his tem- 
poral condition remained inichanged, the same as 
before. 

On that verse, the sixteenth, in virtue of which 
some men claim the abolishment of slavery by the 
authority of Christianity, Dr. Clarke remarks, that 
St. Paul said as much, and no more, than to say to 
Philemon: "Do not receive Onessimus merely as a 
slave, nor treat him according to that condition, as 
before times, but as a brother, a germine Christian, 
and as a person particularly dear to Paul." In all this, 
Adam Clarke, though an abolitionist, could see no 
release of this man from his temporal bondage, from 
anything that appears in the text. 

That St. Paul sanctioned any such doctrine, as the 
manumitting of bond slaves, because they happened 
to become converted, does not appear, while the con- 
trary is abundant, which we are able further to pro- 
duce, from the text of the New Testament, and 
of Paul's own writings. See Timothy vi, 1 — 4: 
"Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count 
their masters worthy of all honor, that the name of 
God be not blasphemed. And they that have believ- 
ing masters, let them not despise them, but rather do 
service, because they are faithful and beloved partak- 
ers of the benefits: these tlun2;s teach and exhort. 



302 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to whole- 
some words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ 
and the doctrine, which is according to Godliness, he 
is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about ques 
tions and strife of words." 

On the subject of this part, St. Paul's remarks in 
ithat letter to Timothy, Adam Clarke says, that the 
word servant^ in that place, signifies slave, and the 
word yoke, the state of slavery or bondage. From 
this, we prove the real existence of slavery in the 
Christian church, in the very time of its organizers 
and founders, and, had it been any where abolished, 
that critic of critics, Adam Clarke, would have found 
it out, and would have marked the place in the most 
' pointed manner ; but it is not to be found in the 
whole Bible, which we shall further show in due 
time. 

In the above cited chapter, 6th of Timothy, at the 
3d verse, there are found some very remarkable allu- 
sions to the subject of slavery, which we cannot pass 
over, and are as follows: "If any man (says St. Paul) 
teach otherwise, and consents not to wholesome 
words, even to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and the doctrine which is according to godliness, he 
is proud [ignorant], knowing nothing." Now to what 
words of Jesus Christ does St. Paul allude, which 
he applies to the case of slaves? See John viii, 35, 
36. "And the servant abideth not in the house for- 
ever, but the son abideth ever. If the son, therefore, 
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." In 
these two verses of the Gospel by St. John, there is 
a manifest allusion to the fact and condition of slaves. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 303 

Of this fact, the Savior took occasion to ilhistrate, by 
way of simihtude, the condition of a wicked man, 
who is the slave of sin, and to show that as a son, 
who was the heir in a house, could set a bond slave 
free, if that son was of the proper age. >S'o, he, the 
iSon of God, can set the enslaved soul free from sin, 
when he would be free indeed. 

In this allusion of the Savior, we do not find the 
fact of. slavery reproved, but merely alluded to, as a 
thing or a usage then existing, and, therefore, recog- 
nized as a practice, not in itself sinful, if practiced 
right and mercifully. If this sentiment is not correct, 
we are at a sad loss to justify the Savior's allusion 
to a circumstance so wicked, as abolitionists believe 
it is, without reproving it. On these very remark- 
able words of our Savior, and St. Paul's allusion to 
them, Adam Clarke has written the following: "Now 
the slave abideth not in the family, as if Jesus had 
said: and now that I am speaking of slaves, I will 
add one thing more, viz : a slave has no right to any 
part of the inheritance in the family to which he be- 
longs, but the son, the legitimate son, has a right: he 
can make any servant free, though no slave can do 
this, because, we will add, one piece of property can 
not assist another piece of property, as they are le- 
gally powerless," 

It is very likely, that, in the time of St. Paul, there 
was agitated the question of manumitting slaves, 
and that it occasioned trouble and unfriendly surmis- 
ing?, as to the desigfis of the new religion — the 
Gospel. Paul, therefore, came out in severe terms 
affainst all such accusing them of doting about 



304 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



questions, and strife of words, and of being proud, 
or ignorant, knowing nothing. As much as if he had 
said, you are ignorant of the determination of God 
from the beginning, on this very subject, even in the 
times of Noah, Moses and the prophets; read, and 
you will learn that the race of Ham are judicially 
placed under the ban of servitude. On this very 
subject, and this passage of St. Paul, Dr. Clarke has 
written thus: "It appears that there were teachers of 
a different kind in the church at that time, a sort of 
religious levelers, who preached that the converted 
slave had as much right to the master's service as 
the master had to his. Teachers of this kind have 
been in vogue, long since the days of St. Paul and 
Timothy." 

This is a true statement; for, if Adam Clarke were 
now alive, he would find thousands of just such 
levelers in America and England, who declare that 
the Scriptures make no difference between the inter- 
ests of slaves and the interests of their masters. To 
prove this, we refer the reader to an abolitionist pam- 
phlet entitled " The Bible against Slavery,^' No. 6, 
p. 25, 1838, where the writer labors hard to show 
tliat the Mosaic system of law made no difference 
between the master and the slave, in relation to their 
natural freedom, or optional powers, avowing that 
the Mosaic system was framed as much to advance 
the interest, and gratify the wishes of servants, as it 
was their masters. This statement of theirs, as above, 
is not true, even in relation to a Hebrew servant ; for, 
•whenever a Hebrew was made a slave, on account 
of debt or crimes, it was done by force of law, in 



rORTUNES, OB' THE NEGRO RACE. 

which neither his comfort, will, or interests, ^^ 
considered in a 'pecuniary hght, further than that h^ 
was to be treated as a hired man, till his debts were 
paid or the crime expiated. How much less^ there- 
fore, were there mitigating circumstances in the case 
of the negro, or Canaanite slave, who were deemed 
to be laivfiil subjects of oppression, except their daily 
food and rest on Sabbath days? Although Hebrew 
servants and criminal delinquents went always free, 
at the times of the little jubilees, as provided by the 
law, yet there was one case in which even a Hebrew 
servant could not avail himself of this emancipating 
law. 

To prove this, we have only to refer to Exod. xxi, 
5, 6, which reads as follows: "And if the servant [a 
Hebrew] shall plainly say, I love my master, my ivife 
[who was born a slave], and my children, I will not 
go out free. Then his master shall bring him mrto 
the judges ; he shall also bring him unto the door^ or 
imto the door fost, and his master [with his own 
hands] shall bore [or drill] his ear through with an 
awl, and he shall serve him for ever." This awful 
sentence of a total loss of liberty was thus passed up- 
on a Hebrew servant, because he despised liis natu- 
ral privileges, for reasons of his own — choosing rather 
to be a slave during his natural life, than to leave 
the service of his master and be free ! How much 
less, therefore, could the jubilees reach the case of one 
of the accursed race, who was not of the Hebrew 
blood, nor of the blood of Japheth ! From this fact, 
we perceive how entirely reckless of truth abolition- 
ists are, who set up claims in favor of the race of Ca- 
13* 



306 ORlcriN, CHARACTER, AWss 

naan and Ham, as servants, which the law of Mose? 
did not accord even to servants of the Hehreio blood 
Such a position as this^ in favor of Canaanite slaves, 
would have placed them in far better circumstances 
than were the unfortunate servants of their own race ; 
a thing which fully contradicts the express statements 
of the law of Moses on that very subject ; for, in that 
law, Hebrew servants, who were made thus by being 
sold^ were to be treated as they would treat hired 
men, and not like hondmeii. 

At the very time when Christianity was being set 
forth and established in Judea and the surrounding 
countries, by the Savior, his disciples and the apos- 
tles, after the crucifixion, the custom of owning and 
dealing in slaves, greatly prevailed in all the Roman 
empire, and yet we do not find this practice once re- 
ferred to, by way of reproof, in the New Testament. 
How strange, if it was looked upon by those moral 
benefactors of the human race, as some seem to look 
upon it now! But, as a reason for this strange omis- 
sion, it is said, by abolitionists, that, although at the 
time Christianity was introduced into the world, 
slavery was every where prevalent, yet Christ, nor his 
heralds, did not see fit to rebuke the sin, because it 
would have operated against the Gos^eX.—Encydo- 
jJCBdia, Edinburgh edition, under the head of Slav- 
ery, their opinion is found. 

Here we pause with astonishment, and inquire 
whether the above reason for that omission is the best 
they can think oil If it is, then it follows that God 
incarnate, in the economy of his church on earth, is 
thereby represented as succumbing to what abolition- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 307 

ists say is a great sin, merely because the sin was 
a deeply rooted and jiopular sin, and to have de- 
nounced it, would have occasioned the Gospel to have 
been evil spoken of, as aiming at a civil revolution. 
Tell it not in Gath, among the negroes lest they 
should show their ivory; nor in Christian countries, 
lest skeptical men might deride so puerile a captain, 
as the miserable idea would make the great Savior 
to be. 

This opinion, found in the work above alluded to, 
is the most singular and monstrous that we have ever 
fallen in with among the written principles of men, 
as it represents Jesus Christ, who reigns in his own 
house — the church — and in the world as its creator, 
as being under fear', lest, were he to have reproved 
a certain great and popular sin, it would have injured 
the cause of religion in the world, and especially in 
Judea and the Roman dependencies. His business 
on earth was to reprove sins of every name and na- 
ture, and to introduce principles, which, in their ef- 
fect, should establish all righteousness, without fear 
of opposition from the ignorance, the prejudices and 
cupidity of men. The prophets were not afraid to 
reprove sin, whether personal or national, though 
they lost their lives by it. How much more, there- 
fore, would not the inspirer of the prophets reprove 
sin, who was in Christ, without measure ? This is a 
hard point for abolitionism to weather; for if the 
founder of the Christian religion, in the very midst 
of the commission of the sin complained of, did not 
reprove it, who are abolitionists, that they should? 
Ai'e they more righteous than the master? Is it not 



308 ORIGIN, r^ARACTER, AND 

enough, if the servant be as his master? Were it 
not far more wise to believe that God, in Christ, had 
respect to his own determinations on the subject of 
negro slavery, as signified to Noah, to Moses, and to 
the Hebrews, which was not to be aboUshed, even 
by the benign influences of the Gospel? 

In proof that the Greeks and Romans, as above in- 
timated, had vast numbers of slaves, we show from 
^^ Adams'' s Roman Anliquiiies,^^ page 38. At Rome, 
he says, there was a market-place, which was devot- 
ed wholly to the sale and purchase of slaves. They 
were commonly exposed naked, and having around 
their necks a scroll, on which was written an account 
of their good qualities. From the sale of slaves arose 
the principal part of the enormous wealth of Crasits. 
In the times of the Roman republic, the owners were 
allowed to put their slaves to death when they would, 
or to torture them by all manner of cruelties. By 
the Roman law-makers, slaves were esteemed the 
same as other property: they were not allowed as 
witnesses in any court, ecclesiastical or civil: it was 
the same, also, among the Hebrews, under the force 
of the Mosaic legislation, as well as among all other 
nations, tongues and people. 

Some of the Romans, says both Seneca and Plln'if, 
had whole legions of slaves, and otheis even twenty 
thousand. The Romans, according to /S'lrabo, says 
Rollin, Vol. I, page 232, worked their g ^Id mines in 
Spain by slaves. This author says, that, in his times, 
as many as forty thousand slaves were employed an- 
nually in the mines, who, by continued scourging, 
were caused to labor beyond their strength, day and 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 309 

night, hy which means they generally all perished 
under ground. But against all personal cnielties ex- 
ercised by parents, guardians and masters, upon their 
children, their apprentices, hired servants, or slaves, 
as well as dumb animals, God's laio^ as well as his 
g'ospel, is 'pere7nptory ; and although the various 
classes, as above mentioned, are, by the law of God, 
put under rule, yet does it not authorize wanton bar- 
barity, but enjoins mercy, moderation, patience and 
justice, toward them. 

The slaves of the Romans, in the times of Christ 
and the apostles, as well as of the Greeks, then min- 
gled in the Roman empire, were of the conquered 
negro Carthaginians of Africa, who were reduced t© 
vassalage, as well as to personal slavery, about one 
hundred years B. C. — Rollin, Vol. I, page 237. Herod- 
otus says, chap. 2, page 254, that the Greeks, in the 
time of Troy, full twelve hundred years B. C, had 
black slaves, as before noticed. This being true, it ap- 
pears at once that the race of Japhcth, from the earli- 
est times, had practiced enslaving the descendants of 
Ham, as well as the race of Shem, as God had deter- 
mined from the beginning. 

Thus we see, that in the times of the apostles^ as 
well as in all ages before, going up to the flood, that 
the world was filled with negro slaves, wherever the 
races of Shem and Japheth were found. Now, if the 
practice, in principle, was a si7i, and seeing it must 
have fallen under their notice in all places, how is it 
that no deunciations are found in the New Testament 
against it ? But instead of St. Paul's reproving the 
practice, we find him even sending a slave back to 



310 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

his master, whom he had found in Rome. Paul 
Jfnew the slave, and when he was converted, and he 
had ascertained that he was a runaway from Colos- 
se, and that he belonged to Philemon, a friend of 
his, and a member of the church, he immediately 
wrote a letter, gave it to the slave, and directed him 
to return again to his master, Pliilemon. Had not 
this slave been converted to Christianity, he never 
would have obeyed St. Paul in this matter, nor would 
he have troubled himself about it. But, as the slave 
was now, by his association with the members of the 
church, thrown under the care of the apostle, it was 
proper for that great minister of the faith to take the 
matter in hand, as justice demanded the return of 
the servant to his master and owner again ; to which 
the slave willingly consented for righteousness's sake, 
as he had become obedient to the word of God. Had 
St. Paul had any particular objection to the jrrinciple 
of slavery, as applied to the descendants of Ham, now 
was the time for him to have stated it, and in lan- 
guage the most ujiequivocal, such as the scribes of 
abolitionism, now-a-days, would have written on the 
occasion, which would have been pretty strong, no 
doubt ; but of such objections, we hear not a word 
from the pen of that apostle. 

At this point of our remarks, we have a most dole- 
ful circumstance to present, which, according to the 
views of abolitionists, must have been a glaring 
breach, even of the law of Moses, as well as of the 
benevolent intentions of the Gospel. This circum- 
stance, or deed of misdemeanor, is found to have been 
perpetrated by St. Paul himself, and related to the 



tORTUNKS, OFTHE NEGRO RACE. '311 

case of the slave Onessimus, as above referred to. In 
Deut. xxiii, 15, 16, it is written: "Thou shalt not 
dehver unto his master the servant which is escaped 
from his master unto thee: he shall dwell with thee, 
even among you in that place which he shall choose, 
in one of thy gates : thou shalt not oppress him ;" and 
yet St. Paul was the man who sent the runaway 
servant to his master again. Oh, what a sinner was 
he, according to abolitionism! From tliis fact, or 
transaction of St. Paul, we learn two things : one of 
which is, that he did not do wrong in that case ; and 
the other is, that the slave was a negro, or descendant 
of Ham. We prove that the slave was not a Hebrew 
or of the blood of Shem, from the very fact of Paul's 
sending him back to his master; as he knew that 
the law of Moses forbade the sending of runaway 
Hebrew servants again to their masters, as above 
shown by the law itself Had the servant been a 
Hebreiv, it would have been unlawful for Phile- 
mon to have had Onessimus at all as a slave; 
for the law of Moses did not give delinquent He- 
brews, or any of the blood of Shem, to the Greeks 
or white men, for slaves, as it did the negro race; 
and for this very reason, the slave Onessimus must 
have been a Canaanite, or one of the race of 
Ham. 

From the very passage above quoted, Deut. xxiii, 
15, 16, abolitionists claim that it is_^rong to send a 
runaway slave again to his master, in this country; 
but the apostle acted otherwise, which he could not 
have done had the slave been either a I'ed or a white 
man — as the enslaving of those races have not the 



312 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

Divine sanction, nor were they ever accursed in the 
sense the race of Ham was. 

The intention of that law, as understood by the 
Hebrews of Moses's time, as well as in all succeeding 
ages, was, that it was but a mere direction how they 
were to treat the case of runaway servants from the 
neighboring nations, who, in flying from their mas- 
ters, whether Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Arabs, 
or from any of the nations of the Abrahamic or Shem- 
ite blood, to the Hebrews, were to be protected, and 
not sent again to their masters. 

As a reason for this, it should be recollected that 
all those nations were of the Shemite or Abrahamic 
blood, and could not be permanently enslaved by any 
Jew ; and if any servant of this description of blood 
saw fit to leave their country and master and fly to 
the Hebrews, and take sanctuary under the banner 
of their God, they were not to be molested and sent 
again to their masters, to whom, no doubt, they had 
been slaves. They were to dwell wherever they 
might choose, entering into any business in their 
power, within the range of the twelve tribes. Such 
runaway servants were not to be opj)ressed. By this 
very clause of the text, ^'- thou shalt not oppress hwi,'^ 
It is distinctly shown, that this kind of servants, thus 
favored, were no Canaanites, or any of that race, as 
the law of Moses did allow of the oppression of that 
class of men in the matter of absolute slavery. And 
further, it is sliown, that the kind of servants alluded 
to in that trait of the law, Avere not of the Hamite 
race, by the supposed circumstance of their running 
away from their masters to the Ilebreus—ihe last 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE, 313 

country on the earth to which a negro would run, as 
among that people they could expect nothing but op- 
pression, as it was one of the very laws of the He- 
brews, to enslave all the people of that character, 
wherever they could find them. 

Neither can it be supposed that the trait in ques- 
tion alluded to Canaanite, or black bondmen, who 
might run away from one Hebrew master to another 
Hebrew, as, in that way, if they were not to be re- 
turned nor molested, the slaves of the whole twelve 
tribes, in a trice, at any time, could have freed them- 
selves. For if a slave of the negro character saw fit 
to run away from his Hebrew master, to another of 
the same description, at once he was free; for the 
law forbade any one molesting a runaway servant. 
On this very account, the reader can but see, that no 
such servant as a Canaanite, could be alluded to by 
that trait of the law of Moses which forbade the re- 
turning of a runaway servant. 

Again, if we say that this trait of the law related 
to Hebrew servants, who had become thus on account 
of poverty, or any other lawful cause, and had been 
brought under the provision of the law, in such cases 
made and provided ; if we say that these were the 
kind of servants who were not to be returned, if any 
such ran away from the Hebrew masters, then it is 
not hard to see how wide a door for the commission 
of frauds would, by the very law itself, have been 
opened against the secular business and interests of 
the whole twelve tribes. 

But hoiD 7 says the reader. As follows, is our an- 
swer. Suppose yourself a Hebrew, and living nov; 
14 



314 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

in old Canaan, and that, to-day^ you have bought a 
man of your tribe, who had been offered for sale, on 
account of debts or crimes, and paid, perhaps, five 
hundred shekels of silver for him, and to-morrow he 
runs away, going no further than to the next neigh- 
bor's, where, according to the law, your servant is not 
to be molested or returned — what do you lose 1 Why, 
you lose your five hundred shekels of silver, and the 
man goes free, cheating both the law and the pur- 
chasers. 

There is no way, therefore, to understand the ap- 
plication of that particular trait of the law found in 
Deut. xxiii, 15, 16, but to suppose the servants there 
alluded to, pointed out the servants of the surround- 
ing nations, not of the Hamite race. This is evident 
from the very peculiar phraseology of the law itself 
which addresses the whole twelve tribes as being but 
one person, as follows : " Thou shalt not deliver unto 
his master the servant which is escaped from his 
master unto thee : he shall dwell with thee^ even 
among you^ in that place which he shall choose in 
one of thy gates." In this passage, it is seen that the 
law made but one person of the whole twelve tribes, 
by using the terms, thou^ they and thee^ in relation to 
them, and also showing that the runaway servants 
there alluded to, were such as should come to them 
from beyond the bounds of the twelve tribes. 

That scripture, therefore, had no application to 
either a Hebrew servant, or to a bought slave of the 
Canaanite race, as a regulation of that sort, touching 
the legal interests of the owners, would have filled 
the whole land of Judea with confusion; as whoever 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 315 

might have bought a servant according to the law, 
was immediately exposed, by the same law, to lose 
his money — a regulation to which no community 
would submit in any age. 

Thus we have shown, that St. Paul understood 
what he did, when he sent again the slave of Phile- 
mon to his owner, from Rome, in Italy, to Colosse, a 
city in Asia Minor, and belonging to the Romans at 
that time by conquest, as did all the countries of those 
regions in the time of St. Paul. Had Onessimus been 
a white man, or an individual of the race of Abra- 
ham, St. Paul never would have arrested him as a 
slave, to return to his master, except the man was in 
debt to Philemon — as no other race but that of Ham, 
was ever judicially doomed by the Creator to abso- 
lute slavery; and this was as well known to St. Paul, 
as it is to all who read the Bible with a view to un- 
derstand this thing. 

Surely, had the apostle felt about the ensJavmg of 
Ham's race, as many seem to feel now-a-days, he 
would not only have told the slave to run for it, and 
to steal a horse, or anything else to aid his flight — as 
do abolitionists — but would have made the subject 
the occasion of a special treatise to the churches, as 
he did other matters of great importance, and would 
have denounced it as a horrible sin against God and 
human nature. Had not the notion among the con- 
verted slaves been entertained that their religion made 
them equal with, and as free as were their masters, 
it is not likely that we should ever have heard a word 
on the subject from the pen of St. Paul, more than 
from the other writers of the New Testament. But, 



316 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

as he was well acquainted with the matter in the Old 
Testament, and as the question did arise in the 
churches, he found it necessary, while in pursuit of 
other matters, in his letters, to write on this subject 
also, and in a very pointed manner. Wherefore, he- 
said to bondmen, that they should be content with 
their condition, careing nothing for it. See 1st Cor. 
vii, 21. He said, also, to their masters, that they 
should treat their slaves well, even forbearing to 
threaten them, as they were to remember that they, 
also, had a master in heaven. See Eph. vi, 9, and 
Coloss. iv, 1. 

At the very time St. Paul was traveling in the va- 
rious countries of the Roman empire, the condition 
of slaves, says Adam Clarke (see his comment on 
Coloss. iv, 1), "among both Greeks and Romans, was 
wretched in the extreme : they could appeal to no 
law, and could neither expect justice nor equity. 
The apostle, therefore, informs those proprietors of 
slaves, that they should act toward them according 
to justice and equity ; for God, their master, required 
this, and would at last call them to an account for 
their conduct in this respect. To this we will add, 
that God will also call all others to an account, who 
abuse their bondmen, as well as those to whom the 
apostle addressed himself at that time, whether in 
America, Asia, or Europe, as the institution is one of 
the greatest responsibility, and, under the supervision 
of the white man, consequences and results of incal- 
culable amount. 

It does not appear that they were admonished to 
manumit slaves, but were charged only to use them 



FORTUNES, OF THK NEGRO RACE. 317 

well, and to be kind to them as such. To the slaves, 
he said, instead of telling them to kill their masters, 
and to run away to some other country, and thus be- 
come free, that they should be content, and obey 
their masters with fear and trembling, as unto Christ. 

But this is not the way abolitionists talk on that 
subject: their speeches are all inflammatory, calcu- 
lated to rouse the mind of slaves, and every body 
else, to vengeance, war and murder, instead of pro- 
moting patience^ as did St. Paul under the same cir- 
cumstances. 

By abolitionists, it is most vehemently contended, 
that the curse of Noah upon the race of Ham, was 
but a mere prophecy, like all the other prophecies of 
the Scriptures, which foretell the good or bad actions 
of men and nations. But, if this be the true and on- 
ly way of interpreting that passage, it may then be 
inquired, of what use the word cursed is to the an- 
nouncement? Could not the communication have 
been set forth in softer language ? Was it not enough 
that they were to become enslaved, without adding 
the degrading word, cursed 7 Surely, the misfor- 
iu7ies of men or nations cannot thus degrade them, 
as it is not considered sinful to suffer — especially the 
innocent. On this view, it is impossible to look up- 
on that dreadful word in any other light, than as su- 
pernumerary and injurious to the party concerned, 
and, besides, as also false ; for it cannot be shown 
that misfortunes render any class of sufferers cursed. 

But the word of God, as in this and all other parts 
of the Scriptures, do not convey false ideas, but true 
and immutable ones. It follows, therefore, that the 



318 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

word cursed, as used in relation to the destinies of 
the negro race, were used in the imperative and ju- 
dicial sense — not prophetically. In these passages, 
Gen., ix, 25, 26, 27, the person who violated the 
privacy of Noah in his repose, is alluded to as being 
then, at the very time the deed was done, a cursed 
character, and, in him, all his race. In the text, as 
it is trajislated, the words, cursed he Ham, is an im- 
-precation on the head of Ham and his progeny, all 
identified, then and there, in his person. But, as it 
reads in the original, cursed Ham, without the he — 
which is a supplied word — it makes Ham to have 
been then, at that very time, a cursed man, and in 
him, all his race, in relation to slavery, excluding al- 
together any such notion as the passages being a 
mere prophesy. 

But, says an objector, was it not prophesied that 
Jesus Christ was to come into the world, and that he 
should be put to death by wicked hands ? We an- 
swer, yes ; and add, moreover, that it was not only 
prophesied of, but was judicially determined, that he 
sAow/^Z come into the world to die for sinners; and 
had there never been any wicked hands to put him 
to death, yet must he have died in some other way, or 
there could have been no ato7ieme?it. It was a decree 
of God, an irretTievable judicial act, that Christ should 
die, because he became the surety of those who were 
condemned to death and dammation ; it did not depend, 
therefore, on contingencies primarily, but secotidai'i- 
ly only. Respecting the curse, or judicial act of God, 
against the race of Ham, we apprehend that it is to 
be viewed in the same light as to its fulfillment, 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 319 

whether there should be found on the earth so much 
as one wicked man or not, from the days of Noah to 
the end of the world ; yet the race of Ham were to 
De servants and slaves, or the decree would have fail- 
ed of its accomplishment, as God saw fit to determine 
concerning them. 

Having now finished our inquiry, respecting the 
fulfillment of Noah's prophecy, in the enslavement of 
the descendants of Ham by the race of Japheth, and 
of his dwelling in the tents or countries of Shem, as 
the Turks, who are of the race of Japheth, are now 
doing, and of his supplanting the American Indians ; 
we' pass to an examination of certain passages of the 
Scriptures, where abolitionists seem to think they 
have found out that negro slavery was abolished as 
far back in time as the days of Isaiah^ the prophet, 
some seven hundred years before Christ, 

Whatever God has said, and in his Word decreed, 

The same shall come to pass in very deed: 

As thus 'tis seen, though many men will rave. 

Ham, to the race of Japheth, it a slave. 

So, in the tents of Shem, the white man reigns 

O'er all Judea's hills and Persia's plains. 

To him (the Gentile race), of God, was given 

The Gospel — the last great gift of Heaven. 

When Paul, at Rom.e, turned from the Jewish strife, 

And gave to Gentiles there the word of life; 

Take the mighty boon, and rise to high estate, 

Thou white man, o'er the earth and Hell's dark gate; 

Supplant the black and red man, bear the sway, 

And reign till time shall bring the judgment day. 



320 



ORIGIN, CHARACTKR, AND 



TWELFTH SECTION. 

Inquiries whether the Scriptures have, either in the Old or New 
Testaments, abolished slavery, as abolitionists assert that they 
have — Query, if they never sanctioned it, how could they abolish 
it? — The famous passage oi Isaiah, chap. Iviii, on which abolition- 
ists found their argument in favor of the scriptural abolishment 
of slavery, examined, and found to have no allusion to the sub- 
ject — All the Jews, their elders, nobles and kings, enslaved the 
race unreproved — Reproofs of the prophets, for the Jews enslaving 
their own people beyond the jubilees, but not the negroes — The 
famous passage of Exod. xxi, 16, which respects the stealing of a 
man to enslave, or to sell him, examined, and found to have no 
allusion to negroes, while abolitionists assert that it does — Isaiah's 
opinion respecting the Jews enslaving their enemies, chap. xiv. 2 — 
Abolition argument against slavery, founded on the law of love 
toward our neighbor, replied to — Abolition argument, charging 
the institution of negro slavery with an attempt to usurp the sov- 
ereignty of God over the souls of slaves, replied to 

That the Scriptures have abohshed negro slavery 
and disallowed of the principle itself, is contended 
by abolitionists, who boldly aver that they do not, in 
any case or instance, justify it, but every where con- 
demn and reprobate the practice, as well as the prin- 
ciple. But whether this is true, the reader has al- 
ready seen, if he has read the preceding pages with 
but common attention. 

But, as to the Scriptures having abolished negro 
slavery, we inquire where the passage or portions of 
that book can be found, which have done this ; and 
which of the prophets, kings, patriarchs, judges, or 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



321 



apostles, have thus determined this matter? As to 
information of tliis description, says an abohtionist, 
we are able at once to gratify the inquirer, showing 
the place, chapter and verses, and press them upon 
the reader's consideration, as they are extremely ex- 
pressive and explicit, flowing from ,he pen of inspira- 
tion in tones of thunder, condemnin g the awful sin of 
nogro slavery. See Isaiah Iviii, 6 and 7, as follows : 
"Is not this the fast that I have chosen (namely), 
to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy 
burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that 
they break everi/ yoke. Is it not to deal thy bread 
to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are 
cast out, to thy house : when thou seest the naked, 
cover him : and that thou hide not thyself from thine 
own flesh?" These passages of Holy Writ are, in- 
deed, very plain, and, to the careless reader, seem to 
make an end of the matter, inasmuch as they re- 
quire that every yoke should be broken, the heavy 
BURDENS taken off", and the oppressed set free. 

But, dear reader, do not become vexed when we 
ojjirm, that although the passages above cited are 
very plain in their mode of expression, yet they do 
not, in any sense of the word, apply to the case in 
hand, or to the subject of negro slavery, as practiced 
in the time of Isaiah, or any other age. We affirm 
this, on account of three good and sufficient reasons, 
as follows : 

1st. Consistency among the writers of the Holy 
Scriptures, who were inspired by the immutable God 
on the same subjects, forbids the Delief that they should 
clash. If Moses, by so many direct statements as 



322 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

are found in Levit. xxv, 44 — 46, allowed the He- 
brews to enslave the Canaanites and other negro tribes, 
are we to suppose that Isaiah, under the same inspi- 
ration and law that Moses was, would contradict 
this ? This trait of Hebrew national custom, name- 
ly, that of enslaving the blacks, had obtained from 
the days of Moses till the time of Isaiah, a lapse of 
full nine hundred years, and by the authority of the 
law, without reproof or restraint, as we have shown. 
Is it to be supposed that Isaiah would disregard all 
this, and deliberately write a 7iew code on this sub- 
ject, in exact competition with the very laio to which 
he himself subscribed, and by which Ae, as well as 
every other Hebrew, was then governed? Had not 
Isaiah read, a thousand times, what Moses had said 
in Exod. xxiii, 32, respecting the Canaanites, name- 
ly, that the Hebrews, when they should come to pos- 
sess the country of Canaan, were to make no cove- 
nants of amity or peace with the inhabitants, but 
were utterly to despise, ruin and destroy them? Had 
he not read the same thing in Deut. vii, 2, which di- 
rected the twelve tribes to smite and utterly destroy 
those nations, making no compacts with them at all? 
The passage in Deut. vii, 2. reads as follows: "And 
when the Lord thy God shall deliver them [the Ca- 
naanites] before thee, thou shalt smite them and ut- 
terly destroy them: thou shalt make no covenant 
with them,- nor show mercy unto them." Is it like- 
ly, therefore, that the Holy Ghost would contradict, 
by the pen of Isaiah, that which he had directed to 
be written in the law of Moses, and at a time, too, 
when that law was the ultimo of legislation to all the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 323 

tribes of the Jews, and governed the prophets, as well 
as the people? Is it likely, under circumstances of 
this description, that Isaiah would say to the subjects 
of his charge, let the Canaanite slaves go free ; take 
every burden from their backs, and break every yoke 
from their necks, and that will be the fast which will 
please the Lord ? Can the reader fail to feel the force 
of this first reason? 

2d. The absolute silence of the New Testament, 
in not condemning the practice of enslaving the ne- 
gro race ; and, further, its absolute recognition of the 
practice, and that favorably agreeing both with the 
curse of Noah and the law of Moses on this subject. 
The favorable recognitions of the New Testament on 
this matter, are found in the writings of St. Paul, who 
understood the whole subject as well as any other 
writer of the Scriptures, and, doubtless, much belter. 
The places in St. Paul's writings, which recognize 
negro slavery, are, Titus ii, 9 ; Ephesians vi, 6, 8 ; 
Colossians iv, 1, and iii, 22; also Philemon^ as Avell 
as other passages of the New Testament, all of which, 
says Dr. Clarke, refer to absolute slaves, in the j^rop- 
erty sense of the word. 

That the slaves of Rome were Africans, is proved 
from the fact, that when prisoners were brought from 
Africa, they were always sold for slaves. At one 
time only, by one of their generals, namely, JReguhis, 
there were brought to Rome twenty thousand African 
negroes, who were all sold into the bondage of slav- 
ery. — Rolliji, Vol. I, p. 283. If so many were cap- 
tured at one time, by but one man, how many may 
we not suppose were thus taken and sold during all 



324 ORIGIN, CHARACTER,, AND 

the wars of both Greece and Rome against Africa, 
during several ages? Myriads, no doubt; and all 
this known as well to St. Paul, and all the New Tes- 
tament writers, as to the whole world of Asia, in those 
ages. 

If it were true, as abolitionists imagine it is, that 
the Holy Ghost inspired Isaiah to write against ne- 
gro slavery, as then practiced in his time upon the 
Canaanites, the Philistines, the Lybians, the Egyp- 
tians, the Ethiopians, and any of the Hamite race ; 
how is it that he did not also inspire St. Paul to write 
in the same way, and in words as plain as Isaiah has 
written, according to the perceptions of abolitionists, 
especially when the apostle was engaged in writing 
on the very subject of negro slavery, practiced by 
members of the Christian churches, in the various 
countries of the Roman empire, and which churches 
he had planted by his own ministry ? had the Holy 
Ghost become less liberal toward the negro race in 
St. Paul's time, than in the time of Isaiah? 

Nay, nay; St. Paul, Isaiah, Moses, Noah, Abraham, 
Lot, the patriarchs, prophets, judges, elders, kings, 
rulers and people of the Jews, according to the whole 
tenor of the Bible, as well as express statements and 
admissions, whenever they touch on that subject, 
namely, the subject of negro servitude, allowed this 
practice without rebuke, as to the jjrinciple, admon- 
ishing, however, owners only, in matters of treating 
them well and in a merciful manner. Can the read- 
er fail to feel the force of this secoiid reason? 

3d. Isaiah's real meaning, as conveyed in the pas- 
sages to which we are arguing, is our third reason 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 325 

for disallowing that he referred to the negro race at 
all, and shall contend that his remarks and reproofs, 
referred to such Hebrews as held their own brethren 
in slavery, beyond the stipulations of the law of Mo- 
ses, and to such only. The law of Moses allowed of 
the sale of Hebrew debtors, to pay their debts, as 
well as of children, owned by poor Hebrew pa- 
rents, and also of criminals, as thieves, &c. See Lev. 
XXV, 39, 47, 48, 50, and Exo. xxi, 7, 2, and xxii, 
3, where all these cases are set down. 

But the wicked Jews, in the time of Isaiah, as well 
as at many other times, broke over the boundaries 
of that law, by keeping their own brethren^ thus sold 
and bought beyond the years of release, and the Ju- 
bilees making of them perpetual slaves, both parents 
and their children, as they did the Canaanites. In 
case a Hebrew was sold to a Hebrew, the law of Mo- 
ses strictly forbade their being oppressed, as bondmen 
were, enjoining it upon those who bought them, 
to treat them as they would a hired man. See 
Levit. XXV, 39, 40, and many other passages to the 
same effect. And besides this, they were command- 
ed to furnish them liberally out of the threshing 
floor and the wine press, and their tiocks, at the times 
of their release, or at the Jubilees, so as to enable 
them to begin the world anew. See Deut. xv, 14, 
which immunities were never extended to a Canaan- 
ite slave. 

But all this in the time of Isaiah, was deeply and 
horribly infringed upon, wherefore, Isaiah told them, 
the Jews, that their fasts and other acts of worship, 
could not be accepted of God, while injustice to their 



326 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

own blood and brethren was at all prevalent among 
them, in holding the poor Hebrews in perpetual bond- 
age, contrary to the law on that very subject made 
and provided. To make it clear that the reproof of 
Isaiah on that occasion, and in those passages, related 
wholly, solely and exclusively, to abused and enslav- 
ed Hebrews and their masters, we have only to ob- 
serve, that the last clause of the seventh verse of the 
reproof, is confined to Hebrews, in the use of the 
terms, " thine own Jlesh.''^ The whole passage reads 
as follows — see Isaiah Iviii, 7: "Is it not to deal thy 
bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor 
that are cast out to thy house; when thou seest the 
naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not 
thyself from thine oum Jlcsh.'" 

Surely, the negroes of Canaan, or of any other 
country, were not considered by Isaiah, to be of the 
same flesh with that of the Jews, as they are never 
called in the Scriptures, the brethren of the Hebrews, 
their kindred, their own flesh, &c., but always hea- 
then. Respecting the Jlcsh of the negro race, Eze- 
kiel xxiii, 20, says that it was like the flesh of Asses, 
and yet abolitionists say that negro flesh is as ^ood 
as their flesh is, and every way equal ; we wish them 
much joy of their relations. 

The Canaanites, therefore, who were among the 
Jews as perpetual bondmen, were not the persons 
alluded to in that reproof of Isaiah, and those who 
ought to have been set free by their Hebrew mas- 
ters. 

But, if the reader is not yet satisfied that we arc 
right in the above construction and application in 



FOKTUNKS. OK THE NEGRO R 4CE. 327 

those passages in Isaiah, we will bring a parallel case 
out of the Scriptures, by which the position is fur- 
ther supported if need be. This parallel case took 
place long after Isaiah's time, in the era of Nehemiah 
and his associates, when they were rebuilding the 
walls of Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by 
Nebuchadnezzar, about seventy years before, when 
the Jews were carried away into captivity the first 
time. At that time it appears that many of the peo- 
ple of the Jews had sold their children, to their more 
wealthy brethren, for money to pay the taxes while 
in captivity, and for bread and victuals for their fam- 
ilies, which occasioned great trouble and complaints 
among the people on their return to Judea. 

We will give the account as it stands in the book 
of Nehemiah, chapter v, 1 — 5, as follows: "And 
there was a great cry of the people, and of their wives 
against their hrethreii^ the Jews. For there were 
(some) that said: we, our sons and our daughters are 
many; therefore, we talce up corn for them, that we 
may eat and live. Some, also, there were, that said; 
we have mortgaged our lands, vineyards and houses, 
that we might buy [not hire] corn, because of the 
dearth. There were, also, that said: we have bor- 
rowed money for the king's tribute, and that upon our 
kinds and vineyards: yet, now our fiesh is as the 
Jlesh of our hreihren, our children as their children: 
and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our 
daughters to be servants [or slaves], and some of our 
daughters are bought into bondage already ; neither 
is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have 
our lands and our vineyards." 



328 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

When Nehemiah had ascertained that this dread- 
ful charge was true, it is said, in verses 6 and 7 ot 
the above chapter, that he was very angry, and that 
he set a great company against those who had been 
guilty of this thing, and caused the offenders against 
the law of Moses, in that particular, to release, not 
only the children i.rif^y had bought, but the lands, also, 
according to the law of the greater Jubilee, which 
they had kept, through avarice, beyond the prescrib- 
ed limits, committing robbery in relation to the lands, 
as well as making hondmen of their brother's children, 
their oicn flesh and blood. 

This was a case which was exactly parallel to that 
which was reproved by Isaiah, applying in this^ as 
in that, entirely to the blood of the Jewish tribes, 
who are in Nehemiah, as in Isaiah, called brethren, 
and the same Jiesh, one with another, as a people. 

In pursuit of the same point, namely, to maintain 
that Isaiah, in the famous fifty-eighth chapter of that 
prophet, did not abrogate negro or Canaanite slavery, 
but Hebrew slavery only, we refer the reader to an- 
other parallel case, found in the book of Jeremiah^ 
chapter xxxiv, from the eighth to the seventeenth 
verse inclusive, Avhich took place between the time 
of Isaiah and Nehemiah. 

This p/Tophet, namely, Jeremiah, foretold to the 
Jews, that Nebuchadnezzar should come and fight 
against Jerusalem, and the whole country, burn the 
temfle. and carry away the people to old Chaldea, 
prisoners of war, and thus ruiti their nation — and 
this should he done on account of one particular sin, 
which, it appears, was the heinous one of enslaving 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 329 

their own poor brethren, a crime which was a great 
besetment of the rich Jews, in all ages of their his- 
tory. 

On hearing from the lips of Jeremiah this awful 
denunciation, king Zedekiah, who then reigned, im- 
mediately brought the men who had been guilty of 
this enormity together, and required of them, by 
agreement^ that they should then release, every man 
his Hebrew servant. This was done in the hope that 
God would pardon the nation of this thing, and 
withhold the king of Babylon from coming upon 
them, with his mighty hosts, as Jeremiah had said 
he would, 

The account reads as follows : " This is the word 
that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, after that 
the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all 
the people which were at Jerusalem, to j)roclann lib- 
erty unto them, that every man should let his 7nan 
servant, and every man his maid, being a Hebrew 
or a Hebrewess^go free ; that none should serve him- 
self of them, to wit, of a Jew, his brother.'''' Now, 
when the princess, and all the people which had en 
tered into the covenant, heard that every one should 
let his man servant, and every one his maid servant, 
go fiee; that none should serve themselves of them 
[their brethreri] any more ; then they obeyed and let 
them go. But afterivard they turned and caused 
the servants and the handmaids whom they had let 
{ go free, to return, and brought them into subjection 

( for servants and for handmaids [again]. Therefore, 

the word of the Lord came, saying, thus saith the 
Lord God of Israel: I made a covenant with you/ 
14* 



330 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



fathers, in the day that I brought them forth out of 
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, say- 
ing, at the end of six yearsy let ye go, every man his 
brother, a Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee ; 
and, when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt 
let him go/ree from thee: but your fathers barkened 
not unto me, neither inclined their ear. And ye were 
now turned, and had done right in my sight, in pro- 
claiming liberty, every man to his neighbor, and ye 
made a covenant before me, in the house which is 
called by my name. But ye turned [back from this], 
and polluted my name, and caused every man his 
servant, and every man his maid, whom ye had set 
at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought 
them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and 
for handmaids. Therefore, thus saith the Lord: ye 
have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty, 
every one to his brother, and every man to his neigh- 
bor [being a Jew], behold ; I proclaim a liberty for 
you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence 
and to famine ; and I will make you to be removed 
into all the kingdoms of the earth." 

This horrid fate was to come upon them, for the 
sole reason, that they had, wickedly and unjustly, 
contrary to the law of Moses, enslaved their poor 
brethren, the Hebrews. In all this, there is no allu- 
sion to negro slaves of the Canaanitish character, fon 
in the three accounts, as given by Isaiah, Jeremiah 
and Nehemiah, there is not one allusion of the kind: 
all their remarks being guardedly confined to the 
sin of enslaving their own race beyond the permission 
of their law. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 331 

If, in this direful charge, the prophet Jeremiah did 
inckide negro slaves as a part of the sin of his peo- 
ple in this matter, how is it that he is so extremely 
particular, as over and over again, to name Hebrew 
bondmen and maids, and, not so much as o)ice to 
mention slaves of the other description, who were 
of the heathen of that country ? 

It is, therefore, indubitably certain, that the proph- 
et has avoided charging the Jews with si7i, on account 
of their enslaving the Canaanites perpetually, but 
only for enslaving the Hebreivs beyond the term of 
six years at a time. To fix this on the mind of the 
reader, we select the ninth verse of the thirty-fourth 
chapter of Jeremiah, and again present it as evidence 
s'i{fficie?it of the fact, that negro slaves were not in- 
cluded in the immunities of Hebrew servants, with 
regard to their being set free at the time of the Jubi- 
lees, or any other time whatever. 

The passage reads as follows: "That every man 
should let his man servant, and every man his maid 
servant, being a Hebrew, or a Hebrewess, go free ; 
that none should serve himself of them, to wit of a 
Jeio, his brother.''^ 

To this, agree both Isaiah and Nehemiah, using 
the same lang-uage in effect, every where pointing 
out the Jew blood, which was not to be enslaved, 
leaving the negro race under the disabilities of 
their doom, as found in the book of Genesis and the 
law. 

In all these accounts, there is not a word said 
against the Jews enslaving their own brethren, if 
they did it according to the letter of their law, 



332 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



and lor proper reasons; while, in the strongest terms 
of reprobation, they do, as do all the Scriptures, con- 
demn and threaten every Jew with punishment, who 
should dare to go heyond in that matter. If, then, 
Isaiah, nor none of the prophets have abolished even 
Hehreio slavery, as it was ordained in their law, how 
much less, therefore, have they abolished negro slav- 
ery, which, as well as the other, was according to 
that law, the Hebrew being bounded by six years, 
while the Hamite slave was a slave forever. 

The uproar, therefore, which abolitionists makeover 
this passage of Isaiah, in favor of Canaanilish or negro 
slaves, is but an uproar and sophistry, in which they 
extend the immunities of Hebrew servants to the con- 
dition of the negro slave, which is false, and they 
know it ; or, at least, their leaders do. 

As it respects the feelings and opinions of the 
prophet Isaiah on the subject of slavery, we have a 
very singular account to give in this place. From 
this account, it is certain that he held it to be right 
for the Jews to enslave any people who were their 
enemies, or who had held them in captivity, whether 
negro or red man. To prove this, see Isaiah xiv, 2, 
as follows : "And the people [the Jews] shall take 
them and bring them to their place [Judea], and the 
house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the 
Lord [Judea], for servants and handmaids : and they 
shall take them captives whose captives they were ; 
they shall rule over their oppressors." 

In this case, the people who had held captive the 
Jews, were the Chaldeans, who, in process of time, 
sooner or later, were to be ruled over and oppressed 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 



333 



by the Jews, even to personal slavery. We do not 
notice this case as having any bearing on the negro 
question, but merely to show, that the views of Isaiah 
were not so abhorrent to the slavery of men, who 
were not Hebrews, as some seem to believe ; but 
shows that he acquiesced in the retributive judgments 
of God, even to the enslaving of the bodies of men 
who had oppressed the Jews, his brethren. If, then, 
Isaiah could thus approve of the enslaving of the red 
men of Babylon, how much more the negro race of 
that age, who were denounced in the curse of Noah 
and the law of Moses ? Even the pj'iests of the 
house of Aaron — the very ministers of the sanctua- 
ry — were allowed, by the law of God, to have slaves, 
bought with their money. See Levit. xxii, 11 : ^^But 
if the priest buy any soul with his money, he shall 
eat of it ;" that is, the slave thus bought might eat 
of the food of the family of the priest. From this 
scripture, it is as clear as truth, that the prophets, 
priests, elders, kings and nobles, of the twelve tribes, 
were allowed, by the law of God, to have property 
in man, the same as they could have property in any 
other thing or creature, providing they were not of 
the race of their brethren, the Hebrews, but of the 
heathen of the negro race — as we do not learn from 
the Divine Oracles, that any other people could be 
lawfully or morally enslaved, irrespective of war and 
other contingencies. But there is another scripture, 
besides the one we have just replied to, in Isaiah, 
upon which abolitionists claim the abolishment of ne- 
gro slavery. This scripture is found in Exod. xxi, 
16, and reads as follows : " He that steals a man and 



334 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

selleih him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall 
surely be put to death." 

Does not this passage of Holy Writ, says one, put 
an end to the subject ? Does not abolitionism tri- 
umph here ? Is not this enough to terrify any man, 
who regards the Bible, from stealing away the poor 
Africans from their homes of happiness and peace, or 
from purchasing such as are thus stolen from those 
who steal, purchase, or capture them in their own 
country? We answer, 710; as we do not perceive 
that this remark of Moses in the law has the least 
possible bearing on the subject. It was not to the 
stealing, capturing, or enslaving of the negroes of Ca- 
naan, or any other country, that Moses referred, in 
that passage of prohibitory law. And, as it respects 
the land of Canaan and the negro nations of that 
country, are we to suppose that God, who was about 
to give the whole land to the Hebrews, with all its 
inhabitants, to kill and destroy, that they were to ab- 
stain from taking them hy stealth, as well as by open 
attack 7 Should we suppose this, it would be the 
same as to suppose the issuing of an order to let the 
Canaanites alone, which would defeat the very object 
of the war — which was the entire overthrow of all 
those nations, seven in number, great and powerful, 
far beyond the forces of the Hebrews. 

But, says one, if the passage had no allusion to ne- 
gro stealing, to what, then, did it allude, as intended 
by Moses, and understood by the tribes? We an- 
swer, it was intended to prevent one Hebreio from 
stealing, capturing and selling another Hebrexii, Isra- 
elite, or Jew, or causing any individual of tlieir na- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 3o5 

tion to go into captivity oi bondage of any kind, as 
did the brethren of Joseph, who stole him, and then 
sold him to the Ishmaelites. That the passage means 
tJiis^ and nothing else, is shown and determined by 
a paj'allel text in the safne law, and on the same 
subject. See Deut. xxiv, 7, as follows: "If a man 
be found stealing any of his brethren of the children 
of Israel, and maketh merchandize of him, or selleth 
him, then that thief shall die, and thou shalt put evil 
away from among you." 

Thus we see that the former passage, as explain- 
ed by the latter, has nothing to do with what is call- 
ed 7iegro stealing, either in old Canaan, Africa, or 
any where else: it referred wholly, solelj^ and prima- 
rily, to the people of the Jews, protecting themselves 
from themselves, in this particular matter; for, as 
strange as it may appear, the Hebrews were very 
much prone to the stealing of men of their own blood 
and race, for slaves, and to sell them to strangers. A 
severe law, therefore, was necessary to restrain them 
from the perpetration of this crime against themselves. 
But, if it is still insisted upon by any one, that the 
first quoted passage on this subject did relate to Ca- 
naanite men, as well as to Hehreiu men, then such 
persons are compelled to believe that God both al- 
lowed of the destruction and the protection of the 
Canaanites at the same time — rather a crooked posi- 
tion for a Hebrew to understand just then, when they 
were on the eve of a war of extermination, as it re- 
garded the Canaanites, commanded and directed by 
God himself 

Could it have been any worse for a Hebrew, at that 



336 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

time, to steal, take, capture and enslave a Canaanite 
negro, than it was to kill him? To kill and exter- 
minate them, showing them no mercy, was the direct 
and pointed command of God, as we have before 
shown, Dent, vii, 2. Under so large a license as this^ 
the man is a fool who will pretend that stealing and 
enslaving the negro Canaanites was prohibited by 
those passages, as above presented ; especially when 
the law of Moses, in Levit. xxv, 44 — 46, directly and 
pointedly allowed the Hebrews to make bondmen of 
that people, and to use them as slaves /oret^er. 

To this very law of Moses, which forbade all He- 
brews stealing any individual of their own race, St. 
Paul alludes in 1 Timothy i, 10, where it is writ- 
ten, that the law was not made against the righteous, 
but against the wicked, men stealers, (fcc. Now, if 
we have shown, as above, that the passage in the 
law of Moses extended no further than to the prohib- 
ition of Hebrews stealing persons of their own blood 
or race, as included in the twelve tribes, we are not 
at liberty to suppose that St. Paul meant any thing 
more, as there was no other law for him to allude to, 
as extant, when he wrote to Timothy, and when he 
made the remark about man stealing. 

But, says one, to enslave a negro man is against 
the intent of the law of Moses, inasmuch as St. Paul 
has said, Romans xiii, 8, and Gal. v, 14, that love to 
our neighbor is ihe fidjilling oi ihe law; how, there- 
fore, can any one love, in the true and holy sense of 
the word, who enslaves a black man. This is an- 
swered as follows: "God having jndicially appoint- 
ed that race to servitude, the law of love cannot ab- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



rogate it, any more than the law of love can abrogate 
several other particulars of judicial appointment. 
Such as, it is appointed unto men that they should 
die ; the woman was condemned to be ruled over by 
her husband ; the earth was cursed, in relation to its 
fruitfulness ; the wicked dead are sent to hell ; the 
earth is doomed to be burnt up ; and many more 
things which might be adduced as being determined 
judicially ; all of which the law of love cannot reach 
nor abrogate. It is idle, therefore, to urge an argu- 
ment on such ground as that : for God's determina 
tions and decrees are not frustrated /by his benevo- 
lence, else there were an end to his government. To 
strengthen this position, if need be, we may mention 
that Abraham, Job, Lot, and thousands of the holy 
men of old, as well as modern, had vast multitudes 
of black slaves. Were none of these lovers of God 
and their neighbors, in the true and holy sense of the 
word ? 

At the time Moses wrote the famous passage of 
Deut. xxiv, 7, saying to the Hebrews, that if any man 
among them was found out in having stolen any of 
their brethren, the Israelites, and of having sold them, 
that such a one should be put to death. What a 
pity it is, that there was not, at the time, a thorough- 
going abolitionist at the elbow of Moses, to have just 
popped the idea respecting the strict necessity there 
was, of inserting simply a word or two in favor of 
the negroes, and to read as follows: If any man be 
found stealing any black or negro person of the race 
of Ham, whom Noah cursed, from this time to the 
end of the world, and maketh merchandize of them, 

15 



338 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

then that thief should be put to death. Such a clause 
would have done the business exactly. Oh, what a 
pity ! what a pity that abolitionism could not have 
had a hand in the councils of Heaven about that 
time, as well as when St. Paul wrote to Philemon and 
Timothy on the subject of negro slavery. But there 
is still another passage of Holy Writ to be examined, 
which, at first sight, seems to make pointedly against 
the doctrine of enslaving the blacks, and is quoted 
triumphantly by abolitionists, as of sufficient weight 
and authority to crush and abolish forever, a belief 
in the propriety and rectitude of compelling the servi- 
tude of the negro race, as being founded in the Scrip- 
tures. 

The passage alluded to is found in Rev. xviii, 13, 
and accuses some combination or anti-Christian es- 
tablishment, called "Babylon the Great," of deal- 
ing in slaves and the souls of men, which crime, to- 
gether with others, called for the wrath of God to be 
poured out upon it. But it is our opinion, that this 
passage of Scripture has no more to do with the ques- 
tion of negro slavery, in the literal and personal sense 
of the word, than the other passages of the Bible al- 
ready alluded to, unless it can be shown that some 
great combination of men, called '■'■ Babylon the great ^'' 
which existed in the time of St. John, did actually 
deal in slaves, which we believe will be rather diffi- 
cult to make out. 

There can be no doubt but this power, which is 
called by St. John, ^'■Babylon the great^'' is to be un- 
derstood spiritually, and as characterizing, by the 
spirit of prophesy, some dreadful heresy or anti- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 339 

Christian combination, which was to arise in the 
world. This Babylon is many times referred to in 
the book of Revelation, as in chapters xiv, 8, xviii, 
1, xvi, 19, and is, doubtless, the same power which is 
called, Rev. xi, 8, Sodojn and Egypt, and Rev. xvii, 
5, "Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots 
and abominations of the earth;" and by St. Paul, 2 
Thes. ii, " That man of sin,^' who should wonderful- 
ly exalt himself by lying wonders, and should sit in 
the te7nple of God — the church — showing himself that 
he is God : who this dreadful power was, the reader 
may easily conjecture. 

Now, this is tjie power, therefore, who is accused 
of dealing in slaves — not literally, but spiritually — in 
misleading the mind, and, of necessity, the body, in 
matters of religious faith. 

That scripture, therefore, no doubt, should be un- 
derstood, not of slavery in the common sense of the 
word, but rather of its moral, ^inritual and religions 
meaning, as operating on the minds of men adherent 
to this '■'■great Babylon'''' combination, who practiced 
deceit, ecclesiastical conjurations, (fcc, so that the 
souls and bodies of men were thereby sold to the 
devil, in leading them, from the paths of truth and 
righteousness, in relation to love and obedience to 
God and his commandments. 

This is the way, as we believe, this ^' great Baby- 
lon''^ dealt in the bodies and souls of men. It is not 
imcommon for the Scriptures to speak of great offend- 
ers as having sold themselves to work wickedness, as 
in the case of Ahab and many others. After the 
same manner of reasoning, therefore, as it respects 



34C ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

this ^^ great Babylon^'' who dealt in slaves and the 
souls of men, it is to be understood, wholly and en- 
tirely of the souls and bodies of her membership^ who 
she had bought with her religious merchandize, as 
specified in that chapter, namely, the 18th of Reve- 
lation. 

On that account, the wrath of God was to be pour- 
ed out on this '•'•great Babylon^'' namely, for enslav- 
ing the souls^ and, of necessity, the bodies of men, 
holding them under command, to do the bidding of 
this ^^ great Babylon^'' contrary to the word of God, 
thereby affecting the real and more valuable liberties 
of both soul and body, in time and eternity. 

We are compelled to take this course of explaining 
that text of St. John, lest we should be found airaign- 
mg two writers of the New Testament against each 
other on the same subject, namely, of negro slavery ; 
for St. John knew full well all that St. Paul had said 
on that subject. 

Thus, we think, we have rescued that passage of 
the Revelator, as well as the text of Isaiah, out of the 
hands of abolitionists, who, by subverting them from 
their true and original meaning, endeavor to make it 
appear that the Scriptures have long ago abolished 
negro slavery, which is false, either in so many words, 
or in spirit. 

But abolitionists advance other doctrines and opin- 
ions, besides icresiiiig the Scriptures on the subject 
of negro servitude, which they publish to the world 
in their harangues, books, papers and pamphlets, cal- 
culated to mislead the minds of men on the subject at 
issue. They say that the principle of enslaving 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 341 

black men, whether done in this or any other age, in 
this or any other country, " is a system of unhmited 
spiritual despotism, and places masters in the seat 
of God, or rather above God, in respect to the slaves 
under their control. It is (they say) contrary to the 
sovereignty of God, over each and every individual, 
who is held as a slave. It does not recognize the 
right of the slave to obey God — to follow the dictates 
of his own conscience — to fulfill the station of a mor- 
al being — to act as a free agent, accountable to the 
Judge and Father of all — to the Supreme God, who 
says, all souls are mine — the slave system in effect, 
says, this soul is mine^ not thine ; it belongs to an 
earthly master, and thou, its creator, hast no right to 
command its obedience." For all this, see '■'■Friend 
of Man,'^ a paper dated Jan. 1.5, 1839, Utica, N. Y. 

On the whole face of the above charge, not only 
against American slavery, but slavery in any coun- 
try or age, it is seen at a glance, that the blow falls 
as heavily on the institutions of Moses, the practice 
of the patriarchs, prophets, elders, kings and people, 
not only of the Jews, but the Christian church also, 
even in the times of the apostles, as it is intended to 
fall on American slavery — the principle being the 
chief thing aimed at. 

For if the law of that great legislator, Moses, allow- 
ed of the enslaving of the Canaanites for life, and 
also during all their generations — which we have 
shown was a fact — then all the Hebrews, the patri- 
archs, Jews and prophets, who acted on that law, are, 
by abolitionists, made to have been as bad as they 
say American slaveholders arc, placing them all in 



342 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

one company, and denouncing them as a set of vil- 
lains, fit only for the lowest abodes of damnation it- 
self. For, abolitionists condemn slavery of every 
grade and description, to all intents and purposes, in 
all times, ages and nations, let it have been practiced 
or sanctioned by whomsoever it may have been — and 
this they do in the very face of God, who, through 
Noah, Moses, the prophets and the law^ did not only 
allow of restrictive slavery, in relation to the He- 
brews, but also oiirrestrictive slavery, in relation to 
the whole race of Ham, throughout all ages, or to the 
end of the present constitution of the earth. 

But, abolitionists, in order to get rid of the fact of 
Bible slavery, as recognized in the law of Moses, and 
applied to the negro race, have argued much, and 
labored hard to show that the Canaanites, who were 
bought by the Hebrews for bondmen and bondmaids, 
always bought them of themselves, and never of an- 
other, as if they were the property of somebody be- 
sides themselves, and with this they find no fault, 
being perfectly contented with the idea that a negro 
Canaanite, should, if he liked, sell himself — that was 
all right. 

But this idea, we consider a most singular position 
for an abolitionist to take, as they pronounce all kinds 
of slavery and slave selling or buying most cursed, 
and without authority, either from God or man ; and 
yet a man may sell himself, even for life. How is 
this? Is there no paradox here ? If a man sells him- 
self, is he not sold? Is he not as much a slave as if 
somebody else sold him ? This position of abolition- 
ists, which, by a strange refinement, struggles to get 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 343 

rid of the plain letter of the law of Moses, about He- 
brews being allowed to buy slaves of the heathen 
round about them, establishes the very thing they 
are trying to annihilate, which is negro slavery ; for, 
if the Canaanites could, without sin, sell *?hemselves 
for bondmen, then, the Canaanites sold slaves and 
the Hebrews bought them, the persons who did it 
making no difference as to the principle of the act ; 
it was the thing done, which made out the fact, not 
the modus operandi; so that even this very curious 
refinement of abolitionists, on the meaning of that 
trait in the law of Moses, has not rescued the point 
at issue from the hand of those who believe the Bible 
sanctions the unqualified servitude of the negro race, 
but establishes it. 

But this position of abolitionists is but a fiction, 
a mere ruse, which, at once, can be shown to be 
nothing else, by a reference to the law itself, on this 
very subject, and points out the children, or the in- 
fants of the Canaanites, as the objects of Hebrew 
slave purchasers. See Levit. xxv. 45, which reads 
as follows : " Moreover, of the children of the stran- 
gers that do sojourn among you, of them shall you 
buy [bondmen], and of their families that are with 
you, and they shall be your possession." If, then, it 
were the children the Hebrews v/ere to buy of the 
Canaanites, is it to be supposed that children had 
either the right or the ability to sell themselves? Is 
it not far more reasonable to believe that the parents 
of such children were resorted to in such cases? As 
to the policy of such a regulation of Moses, relative 
to the purchase of slaves, it is evident at a glance 



344 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



as children coi\\dhe more easily managed, and brought 
up to the Hking of the master than could the adults. 
A desire in the mind of the slave to run away would 
be much lessened by the process of domestication, 
and a natural love of those who supplied their wants. 

But, says one, if the Canaanites were given to be 
destroyed by the Hebrews, even to entire extermina- 
ation, how is it that Moses should say, in the law, 
any thing about buying their children for slaves, see- 
ing they could go and take as many as they wanted 
by force, just v/hen they would? We answer this, 
by saying that the Hebrews did not fully obey the 
commands of Moses on this subject as they should 
have done; on which account, there were, always, 
during the whole reign of the Jews in that country, 
many of the Canaanite tribes living among them, 
with whom the Jews were not always at war. Now, 
in a case like this, if the Hebrews wanted slaves of 
the perpetual bondman character, they would rather, 
no doubt, go and buy them of such as had them to 
sell in a peaceable way. 

With a view to such circumstances, Moses directed 
them to buy the children of the Canaanites, as 
among the Hebrews there were always found parents 
in abundance of the negro race, who w^ould sell their 
children for slaves, as readily as they do now in Af- 
rica. There can be no doubt, therefore, but the He- 
brews, many of them under the sanction of that 
clause of the law of Moses, got their living by thus 
buying children, and selling them again in Judea 
and elsewhere; for, let it be observed, that this law 
IS not qualified, as to its extent^ in carrying on the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 345 

traffic. Then, again, there were, no doubt, thousands 
of opportunities for the Hebrews, who wanted slaves 
of the negro character, to buy them of Hebrews who 
had more than they wanted, of such as were born 
in their own famihes, of parents who had been ta- 
ken prisoners in the wars of the country, between 
the Canaanites and Hebrews. 

From these views, we see no great difficulty in the 
way of the Hebrews procuring as many slaves as 
they wanted, without raising a hostile troop, carrying 
ropes, and rushing upon the Canaanite families, in 
times of peace, to get bondmen of this description, 
as there was. doubtless, an abundance of them born 
continually, throughout all their tribes, of such as 
were already slaves, and had been, from the begin- 
ning of the Hebrews' conquest of the country, who 
had been held as perpetual bondmen in virtue of the 
law of Moses, which said that they should be for a 
possession for them and their children forever. But 
in relation to the charge of abolitionists, that Ameri- 
can slavery is a system of spiritual despotism, it is 
not true, on account of the thing being impossible 
and contrary to the nature of the human soul, as a 
master can have no power over the volitions of the 
spirit. Power or dominion over the soul of a slave, 
beyond the mere commands of a master, in matters 
of labor, was never desired by any slaveholder, as 
thought, mind or spirit, cannot perform manual labor, 
which is all that is required of a slave, and this the 



c 

\ body must perform, if it is performed at all. It is 

true, however, that the mind can be persecuted, abused, 
grieved and distressed, and that mind retain its free- 



34e 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



dom of range and action, loving, hating and believing 
as it will, after all. 

The charge, therefore, that the principle of slav- 
ery, is a principle which aims at a usurpation of the 
rights of God over the human soul, is as false as it 
is monstrous and impossible. God, who created the 
African race, and, in their formation, both of body 
and mind, appointed them to slavery and servitude, 
would not have implanted in the desire of the other 
races who are allowed to enslave them, such an ene- 
my to his sovereignty, as a desire to enslave the soulj 
and to take it out of the hands of the Creator, as abo- 
litionists say slavery does; this, God has never done; 
neither was it ever desired by any man who has 
owned a slave ; as an acquirement of such a de 
scription, could be of no earthly service to any one. 

Was the spirit or desire which prompted Abraham, 
Lot, Job, Moses and Washington, with millions of 
other good men, in those ages as well as in America, 
to have slaves or bondmen, as a possession, which 
they bought with their mone^'', a. spirit which aimed 
at the usurpation of God's government over the sotils 
of such bondmen — ^we are compelled to say wo, or 
such a permit would never have been found in the 
law of Moses, nor the practice passed by without re- 
proof in the New Testament. 

There is no such law in the codes of the slave 
holding states, that has a word to say about the souls^ 
minds or spirits of the slaves, as relates to the coer- 
sion of that free principle. The charge, therefore, 
as advanced by abolitionists against the slavery sys- 
tem, is but a flare up — a flourish extra, a mere scin- 



FORTUNES; OP THE NEGRO RACE. 347 

tillation of a fiery pen, as wielded by some extraor- 
dinary spasm of eloquence. If any of the laws of 
the slave-holding states are so framed as to incapac- 
itate the slaves, in relation to proper marriages, and 
thus prevent a state of things highly beneficial to 
all orders of society, they ought to be abolished and 
others enacted in their place, compelling such mar- 
riages as love or fancy among the slaves might dictate, 
however much their lewd propensities might contra- 
dict; surely, a course like this, were better, far, for 
the interests of masters, as well as slaves, than pro- 
miscuous intercourse. 

If God has placed the negro race under servitude, 
that is of itself degrading enough, without any ad- 
ditional circumstances of shame ; and, therefore, all 
slaveholders ought to practice the thing in an order- 
ly and decent manner, exalting the slave as a slave, 
to aid him all that is needful in an honorable dis- 
charge of his duties toward masters, his family, 
friends, kindred and his God. Slavery, conducted 
thus toward the negro race, would not be sinful ; be- 
cause God, in his providence, has appointed the 
white man to be a guardian over the blacks, in the 
characters of masters, for their good and not their 
injury. 

As to the charge of abolitionists, who accuse slav- 
ery of incapacitating slaves to marry among them- 
selves, is shown not to be true, from the genius, design 
and chastity of the law of Moses, which abhored all 
whoredom and libertinism. Of necessity, therefore, 
slaves among the Hebrews, if they v/ould delight 
ill each others company, as males and females, they 



348 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



must have been married, or the curse of God would 
have been upon the whole twelve tribes. See Deut. 
xxii, 20, 21, and xxiii, 17, 18, where it is seen bow 
very severe the law was against all offenders of a 
lewd description among the Hebrews; and are we to 
suppose that they were indifferent to the conduct of 
their bondmen and bond maids in this particular 7 
Consequently, marriages must have taken place as 
much among their slaves as among the Jews, their 
masters. 

Thus, it is evident, notwithstanding the fine spun 
goods and chattel arguments of abolitionists, that a 
state of slavery does not essentially affect the mar- 
riages of slaves among themselves, as if slaves in con- 
sequence of slavery, are, in all respects, really and 
bona fide metamorphosed from human beings into 
some kind of implement, as an axe, a rake, or a wag- 
on, which have neither passions nor souls. As to 
the famous passage found in the Constitution of the 
United States, v/hich reads, that it was held by the 
powers of that Constitution, that all men are - born 
"/ree and equal" we have not a thought that any al- 
lusion was had, by that phraseology, to negro slav- 
ery, more than to men in the moon. The whole 
and only allusion, was to the titled dignitaries and 
nobility of monarchical governments, which enforced 
upon subjects and mankind, the hateful idea of tnas- 
ter and vassal, lord and sei'f, jileheian and patrician^ 
which distinction, to the minds of the framers of the 
constitution, was abhorrent to all their views of po- 
litical liberty. If this was not so, and that clause 
had the n-egro's case in its eye, as well as the above, 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO JttACE. 



349 



It is extremely singular, that, in the whole instrument, 
the race is not mentioned, nor their condition of slav- 
ery. 

Having shown, in this section, that Isaiah did not 
abolish Canaanitish or negro slavery, and that the 
passage against man-stealing did not relate to any 
people except the Hebrews, as well as that slavery 
does not incapacitate slaves as to lawful marriages, 
with many other matters, we next proceed to an ex- 
amination of various notions and opinions of aboli- 
tionists, which, as we apprehend, are miserably out 
of the way. 

Thus, from Isaiah's pen, in word or deed, 
The negroes of that time were never freed : 
The curse of Noah, stood e'en then in force 
As did the law, together with that curse. 
No man had dar'd to dash the sacred page. 
With change of purpose in that ancient age, 
As fearless men do now, who wish to see 
Mutation, where the truth should ever be. 



850 



ORIGIN CHARACTER AND 



THIRTEENTH SECTION. 



A. further exhibition of the opinions and doings of abolitionists in 
America — Consequences, if they carry their plans into effect— 
Sympathy is the lever by which they operate — Men should be- 
ware how they array themselves against the decrees of God^ 
Mysterious providences of God toward man — Proposal to aboli- 
tionists, by the author, to assail other mysterious providences of 
God, as well as the one which respects negro servitude — Reckless 
opinions of abolitionists respecting the southern states — Effects 
of freeing the negroes in the British West India Islands — Effects, 
were the slaves of the southern states freed all at once — Proofs 
respecting the insincerity of English philanthropy toward enslaved 
negroes, and of their non-reliance upon the labor of freed slaves — 
Proofs of a suspicion that English vessels are now engaged in 
getting slaves from the interior of Africa, as formerly — Conse- 
quences, should the Union become divided on the slave question — 
Great possessions and power of the English all round America — 
Their designs — Intended possession of the Oregon territory — Cru- 
elties of the English in India, where they have conquered — Co- 
alescing of American abolitionists with the English, on the sub- 
ject of American negro slavery, as shown in their speeches in 
London, with many other matters. 

On the subject of negro slavery, abolitionists have 
said and done much in America, to raise a tumult 
among the people ; and they have succeeded, by re- 
sorting, like hackneyed politicians, to all kinds of ex- 
travagant arguments, positions and stories, with the 
view of winning their way to 'political power in the 
country. When this shall be accomplished, if ever 
it can be, we will venture to foretell that the Union 
will be two distinct governments. The southern 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 351 

States are determined to hold the rights granted to 
them in the great compact of the Constitution, with 
respect to negro slavery, as in this right they feel, to 
a man, that their happiness and security, as to wealth 
and its resources, depend ; for it is impossible, with- 
out this, to cultivate the country: any and all ad- 
vances, therefore, of the North, to meddle with that 
subject, will be repelled with anger and violence — the 
natural result of encroachments upon the resources 
of any people. If, therefore, abolitionism is persisted 
in, there will arise a division of the states, as sure as 
effect will follow its cause, with all the honors of such 
an event. 

The great lever by which abolitionists operate, is 
that of a pretended symjyathy for the negro race, in 
their condition of slavery, causing the people who 
hear them to take for granted, as truth, all the horri- 
ble stories of atrocities and crimes, perpetrated by 
southern planters, committed on the bodies and souls 
of their slaves. No matter whether the revolting 
stories are true or false ; so long as they can get them 
to be believed, they will answer the purpose just as 
well. Men should beware how they enter the list 
against the decrees of Heaven, on any subject, and 
contend about its judgments, marshaling their elo- 
quence and intrigues in battle array against them, if 
such judgments or decrees happen not to suit the 
views of discontented and designing men, who would 
lead a well meaning public as they list, with no oth- 
er views than the exaltation of themselves to public 
place and power. When this shall be accomplished, 
if such a thing can ever happen, the great sympa- 



352 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

thetic impetus by which the machine now is moving, 
will cease to exist, passing away like the fogs of the 
night, leaving the negro race to look out for them- 
selves as heretofore. Thus will end the mooted sub- 
ject of negro excellencies ; the men who now admire 
the race, and see in them the germs of prodigious 
mental powers, will not be found, as other business 
than the exaltation of a people, upon whom God has 
passed his decree of servitude and inferiority, secured 
in the imbecilities of their very natures. 

Suppose the negroes in the southern states were all 
set free ; would the southern and tropical countries 
get their plantations of corn, tobacco, cotton, indigo, 
oranges, rice and sugar cultivated ? The whites can 
not labor effectually in those countries, as they can 
in the North, but the negro man is created in such a 
manner as to resist, or rather to agree with, the heat, 
fogs and dews of that atmosphere, so that he is not 
injuriously affected by it, as are the whites. 

There is no system but that of compulsory servi- 
tude, by which this labor, on which so much depends, 
can be done ; for if it is left to the free will or the ne- 
cessities of the blacks, there could never be any cer- 
tainty, as instances of freed blacks in the English 
West India Islands refusing to work, has often oc- 
curred, and this even among the better sort, such as 
were members of religious societies. If, therefore, 
these occurrences take place among the better sort of 
blacks, what may not be expected from those of a 
more improvident turn of mind, such as is the great 
mass. On the island of St. Domingo, says Barclay 
on Slavery in the West Indies, pages 8, 137, 350, 357, 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. dt)J 

once justly tormed the Q,iieeii of the Antilles, cultiva- 
tion has nearly ceased, the exportable commodities 
having dwindled down from one hundred and fifty- 
one thousand tons, to little more than seventeen 
thousand. President Boyer, of St. Domingo, offered 
to the free negroes of America, six thousand in num- 
ber, to give them land in the island, if they would 
come and live there and work the land. But when 
they had seen the country, and the people of their 
own race, they were glad to return to America, as 
bad as their condition is represented to be in the 
United States, which they preferred to all the mighty 
privileges of Hayti, under a black president or king. 

Barclay further states, that the case of the Ma- 
roons in Jamaica is no better, showing how little the 
possession of mere freedom betters the negro's condi- 
tion. They have been free ever since the English 
took possession of the island. Have they, inquires 
Barclay, become more civilized, or more industrious? 
Every one knows they have not. The men continue 
to roam half naked in the woods, hunting and fish- 
ing, compelling their women to do the work, entire- 
ly disregarding all the conveniences of industrious 
life, choosing rather to be thus wretched than to la- 
bor. This is exactly the character of their brethren, 
the Hottentots, and the other tribes of Africa, who are 
so lazy and improvident, says Bamberger, the trav- 
eler. Vol. I, page 57, that they will nearly starve be- 
fore they will even fish or hunt, preferring to wander 
in the woods, living on berries and roots. 

With this view, it would be national madness to 
emancipate the southern blacks ; besides, the irrepara- 
15* 



354 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



ble injury to the very negroes themselves, in casting 
their myriads — poor, ignorant, helpless and naked — 
upon imbecile resom'ces, placing them in a condition 
favorable to immediate destruction. The slaves oi 
the southern states, it is said, amount to more than 
three millions. Were this almost countless host set 
free to-day, who can calculate the horrible mischief 
and ruin that would follow, not only to the white 
population, but to the blacks also? On the first night 
of the day of their emancipation, there would be heard 
over the entire land, the bleat and bellowing of flocks 
and herds— fires would be seen in all directions, by 
which their cooking in the open air would be carried 
on. All this would be foreseen by the calculating 
whites, who would be prepared with guns and de- 
fensive arms, when murders and strife would rage in 
all directions. What next ? The military would be 
put in requisition, when the work of death and 
slaughter would go on like a fire in the wilderness, 
over the entire southern states. The negroes would 
now become the objects of terror and midnight dread 
to houses in remote and unprotected places. Prison- 
ers would be taken in multitudes, who would be 
shot down or hanged without judge or jury. In such 
a state of things, the negroes would take to the woods 
and caves of the mountains, and the morasses of the 
lower lands, from whence sallying forth in different 
portions of the country, as they should be impelled 
by hunger, revenge, or love of violence and robberies, 
perpetrating deeds of horror and crime every where. 
To head and lead them on, there would not be want- 
ing base white men, who. to profit by the times, would 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 355 

furnish arms and provisions, exciting the wrath of 
the blacks, on account of their former slavery and 
present trouble. 

But, says one — an abolitionist — all this, as above, 
is but conjecture — a mere fiction — which supposes 
that the negroes would not be willing to labor on the 
southern plantations, were they emancipated. But 
experience, in all cases where the thing has been tried, 
proves that the conjecture is true, in a great measure, 
and, besides that, they manifest no such emotion as 
gratitude on such occasions. An exhibition of their } 

feelings, when set free, is seen in the fate of the white } 

owners on the island of St. Domingo, who, when the ) 

French National Assembly, 1791, decreed that all \ 

the negroes of that island were free and equal with 
the whites, they immediately butchered the whole 
population. — Butlefs Historj/ of the United &'iates, 
Vol. Ill page 392. 

This was one of the wild, deluded and mad de- 
crees of the horrible French revolution, which had 
for one of its immediate eiFects, the total extermina- 
tion of tbe white population of St. Domingo, in which 
neither age nor sex were spared from the dagger. 
The women were violated of all ages, and then killed, 
so great was the hatred and violence of the freed 
blacks. Were the same course pursued by the great 
South, in setting the slaves all free at once, there 
would, beyond all doubt, follow a tragedy of the same 
description, as there is no natural love between the 
races, especially when the negro is made free and 
equal. In this particular, the abolitionists of Ameri- 
ca, in their doctiine of an immediate and simultane- 



356 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

ous emancipation of the negroes of all the southern 
states, are as far out of the way, as were the furious 
mobs of the French revolution, who could not see the 
difference there is between black and white. Were 
the three and a half million of slaves of the South 
set free, and were they, to a man, to manifest no 
hostile feelings, yet, how could they be saved from 
becoming paupers over the whole of those countries, 
seeing they have no land or means of support ? Their 
natural improvidence of mind is well known to all; 
on which account they would, as to the great mass, 
have to be supported by the whites as legal paupers, 
unless they were compelled to labor, to prevent such 
a result, which compulsion would be but a renewal 
of slavery, were it resorted to. Perfect and unquali- 
fied libert}'-, extended to the slaves of the whole South, 
would be the certain ruin, not only to the great ne- 
gro population, but of the whites also, as the requir- 
ed labor would not be performed; and yet the blacks 
would have to be supported by the whites, Avho would 
soon have nothing to do it with, as the wealth of the 
whole slave states depends on agricultzire alone. 

The interference of the northern states with the 
slave question, as to the prijiclple of the thing, is a 
most unwarrantable violation of state rights, inas- 
much as the slave system, as practiced in the South, 
is no injury to the North, but rather of immense good, 
as shown in the production of tropical commodities; 
in which fact it is clearly seen, that the interests of 
the two regions of the Union are blended in one. He, 
therelbre, who favors the interruption of state rights 
granted in the great compact, as .set forth in the Con- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



337 



stitution, is a disorgaiiizer, and is blind to the inter- 
ests of the great family of the Union, therein agree- 
ing with the bitterest enemy (the English govern- 
ment) America has among all the nations of the earth, 
who are ever aiming to cripple the commerce and 
productions of this country, in order to favor that of 
their own. In agreement with this disorganizing 
spirit, there is, at this moment, existing a powerful 
combination of abolitionists, who have formed a mul- 
titude of lines or routes, by which runaway slaves 
are enabled to mp.ke their escape from the respective 
states bordering on the North. These men furnish 
money, horses, and all necessary aids for the escape 
of runaways, giving them countenance and support 
in their houses, until they can reach the Canadas ; 
thus coalescing with the British in robbing the citi- 
zens of the South of their property, as recognized in 
the Constitution of the States. 

What is to be thought of such men, who not only 
violate the ceded and acknowledged right of the 
slaveholding states, but are also united with an 
ancient enemy of the Union, in disturbing and en- 
dangering the peace and safety of the whole coun 
try? 

In pursuance of this kind of violence and outrage 
upon the feelings and lawful interests of the public, 
the Massachusetts Legislature of 1843, have passed 
a law^ that no diiference shall be made by the agents 
of steam cars on the railroads of that State, between 
hlack and white passengers ; in this way compelling 
citizens of their own state, and those of the others, 
as well as foreiguBrs, to mingle and associate with 



358 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

blacks, whether it is agreeable or not. — AS'ee ^'Dailff 
American Citizen,''^ Feb. 2, 1 843. 

Do the people of Massachusetts, or abolitionists in 
general, imagine they have a right to make laws to 
compel an association between two races of men, so 
different from each other as are negroes and white 
men — a difference which God himself is the author 
of, and was, therefore, never to be infringed? Such 
conduct is nothing short of rebellion against God, 
manifested in this attempt, confounding the order of 
creation. 

Is it not far more wise to let the negro race remain 
as they are in the South, than to set them free, and 
thereby put them in a position of becoming immedi- 
ately, in all the states, wherever they may choose to 
wander, an expense as paupers, and, at the same 
time, destroy the agricultural interestsof one-half the 
United States, as it is impossible to supply the place 
of the slaves with white laborers, in the hot climates? 

It is said by abolitionists, that on account of the 
slavery of the South, that the costs of carrying ihemail 
in those regions, amount to more than the income, be- 
cause slavery, they say, discourages labor; but this 
position of theirs must be false, as, without the ne- 
gro's services, there would be no agricultural labor at 
all; in which case the costs of carrying the mail 
would be immensely increased, and the income de- 
preciated in the same ratio. 

There is, therefore, no way under the light and 
auspices of Heaven, by which the southern portions 
of the United States, and other tropical countries, can 
be inhabited by civilized men, but by that of negro 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 359 

labor. And as negroes will not labor, unless com- 
pelled, there is, therefore, no way left in the Divine 
Providence to accomplish this, but that of their en- 
slavement. 

That the English put no dependence in the dispo- 
sitions of the freed blacks to do the work of theii 
plantations in the West India Islands, and elsewhere 
in their various and great possessions in different 
parts of the world, is shown in their new expedient 
of inveigling away from their homes and country, a 
certain class of the natives of India, called Hill Cool- 
ies, who they employ instead of the slaves they have 
freed, whose labor will cost them even less than their 
former slave labor. For an account of the Hill Coolie 
business, see Little's Museum of Literature, Science 
and Art, Vol. 34, No. 189, p. 140, year 1838. 

These Hill Coolies are not negroes, but a yellow, 
swarthy race, of the lowest of the laboring casts in 
India. According to the work above quoted, it is 
said that there are circumstances attending the in- 
veigling these men from their country, to traverse 
half the globe in quest of labor, which shows that 
some principle, far enough from justice or mercy, ac- 
tuates the English in this business, notwithstanding 
their seemingly noble generosity in manumitting their 
slaves, which is trumpeted over the whole earth, as a 
deed of immense benevolence and sacrifice. The 
Parliament of England do not often make sacrifices 
in their bargains, nor relinquish their grasp of power, 
in any particular, gratuitously ; if they did, they 
would not oppress their ov/n subjects as they do, on 
wnich account the great mass of their people lack their 



3fi0 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

daily bread. This is well known to all the world, 
and is occasioned by perpetual and exhorbitant taxa- 
tions, causing the people of both England and Ire- 
land to run away to America, and other countries, to 
avoid being starved to death. 

Even the abolitionists of America denounce the 
English government in the most direct and accusito- 
ry terms, in relation to insincerity, respecting their 
profession of philanthropy toward enslaved human 
beings under their control, in the conquered countries 
of India. The abolitionists charge the English with 
aiding in the emancipation of the negro race, just as 
mucli as their political interests invite them, and no 
more; this is no doubt a true charge. 

To show the truth of this charge, as well as the 
fact of English insensibility to the negro's liberties, 
we see, in the N. Y. Express, June 21, 1842, that 
they are 71010 actually in the business of getting ne- 
gro's from the wilds of Africa, along the coasts of the 
river Gambia. This, however, they do not affect 
in the same way as heretofore, or prior to the compact 
of the nations on this subject, but they do it under a 
form of law, in the shape of an indenture, the same 
as taking apprentices. In affecting this, the negro is 
compelled to take a pen between his fingers, while 
the hand is guided by the grip of the master, so that 
the name of the negro is set to the seal of the instru- 
ment, who is as ignorant of the power of the article 
as would be a monkey, were one compelled to write 

The blacks, thus apprenticed are brought from the 
interior by negro capturers, as formerly employed by 
the Enghsh. and paid for so domg. The term of 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 361 

time they are thus apprenticed, is fourteen years. 
But when the time is up, who is there to tell them 
they are free? will their masters? 

As late as February, 1S42, a vesel of five hundred 
tons left the river above named, laden with five hun- 
dred such apprentices. Thus, it is seen, that the 
English have invented a way by which they avoid 
the virtue of the treaty of the nations, who have de- 
creed it inracy, to procure slaves from Africa, and 
yet desire to be lauded, because of her great love 
for the liberties of the negro race, especially such as 
are slaves in America. 

There is another view, in which this great and 
seemingly generous act of the English, in setting 
her negroes free, is to be examined ; and this relates 
directly to the destruction of the produce of the 
southern states. Could England but cripple Amer- 
ica in this particular, and lessen in any degree, or 
wholly destroy the production of rice, cotton, tobac- 
co, &c., it would increase their own trade in these 
articles, as these very products will soon be poured forth 
from their possessions in Africa, in amount sufficient 
to supply all their own wants, and even to sell to 
American manufacturers. Now let the negroes go 
free in the southern states, and this great job is done. 
S It is evident, therefore, that true benevolence and 

S philanthropy, had no influence on the mind of the 

*. English parliament in emancipating her slaves, but 

< rather, in that transaction, there was desioned to be 



( sown the seeds of future profit and speculation in 

\ the division and ruin of the United States. If the 

( negro question can but be pushed hard enough and 

IG 



362 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

long enough to provoke the southern states, to sepa- 
rate themselves from the North, and to form a new 
government, then a civil war will arise in the coun- 
try, when the English will fall on, as opportunity 
and advantage may offer. All her powers in the 
Canadas, the Indians of the far north-west, with the 
runaway negroes, the latter of whom amount, even 
now, in Canada, to many thousands of drilled troops, 
who are ready for a day or an hour to rush to the 
battle, as directed by their masters. 

To this mighty plan of ruin, the abolitionists are 
blinded by the deceitful flatteries of an enemy, who 
invite them to England to talk about the awful suf- 
ferings of the poor slaves in the free states of Amer- 
ica, to make speeches and to v/eep, while they 
encoiu'age the fanatics to go on in their political ad- 
venture, of sooner or later getting an abolition presi- 
dent, senate and congress ; then would be achieved 
the liberties of the negroes, an event which the En- 
glish care just as much about, so far as it relates to 
the happiness of the race, as they do about the liber- 
ties of the kangaroos of New Holland, except as such 
an event would make for their oiv7i interests, in the 
ruin of this country. 

The possessions of the English nearly surround 
the United States at this moment, commencing at the 
West India Islands, from thence to New Brunswick. 
Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Lower and Upper Can- 
ada, New Britain, reaching quite to the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and a part of the almost boundless Oregon, 
comprehending all that region of unexplored country 
beyond or west of the Rocky Mountains, quite to the 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 363 

ocean. This vastly important country they had the 
impudence to claim, because, as ihey say, Captain 
Cook discovered the coast in one of his voyages round 
the world, and have actually made a settlement on 
an island in Queen Charlotte Sound, at the conflu- 
ence of the Columbia with the Pacific. Here they 
have a park of artillery, consisting of a hundred large 
cannon, with all the other munitions of war, besides 
several ships of the line, always afloat in those wa- 
ters. At this place they furnish their hunters with 
articles for the Indian trade, consisting of guns, hatch- 
ets, knives, clothing, trinkets, ammunition, &c., paying 
no duties to the American government for the intro- 
duction of these wares, as they ought to do. In re- 
turn, they receive of the Indians and traders, the 
furs and peltry of that vast region, inhabited by many 
Indian nations. In this very region of country, there 
are more than eighty thousand inhabitants under 
British law. They have also recently taken for 
debt, from the government of Central America, a 
large tract of land, so situated as to eventually com- 
mand the isthmus of Darien — that narrow strip of 
land which unites North and South America, a po- 
sition which, ere long-, will give them untold advan- 
tages, in case of the construction of a ship canal 
through, from the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, 
instead of going round Cape Horn, as they do 
now. 

The name of this place, at the mouth of the Col- 
umbia, is Vancouver. It is evident, that the English 
do, in reality, covet the control of the whole earth; 
for at this moment, she gives law to more than sixty 



364 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



millions of the human race, in the Indies alone, and 
\yill, eventually, to all China, Hindoo^an, &c., be- 
yond the Russian possessions, and the other coun- 
tries of Europe. The English parliament, at this 
moment, govern more than one-eighth of the human 
race, which consists of about eight hundred millions, 
one-eighth of whom are under the control of the 
lords of England. Is not this a power to be dread- 
ed, and to be watched against? The possession of 
the Oregon region is of very great importance to the 
future glory and benefit of this country, as, by it, not 
only many new states may be added to the Union, 
over which the benign principles of a republican and 
popular government may be extended, but the trade 
with China, and the whole vast countries of the west- 
ern ocean, along the coasts of Asia, would be secur- 
ed to the cities, towns and countries yet to rise, all 
along the coast of the Pacific, which belongs to 
America. 

It was in these very regions, along the coast of the 
Pacific, that the first inhabitants of America, after 
the flood, settled, who came from China, across the 
ocean, peopling the islands in their com-se. These 
first inhabitants were the authors and builders of the 
great cities now in ruins, found in both South and 
North America, the discovery of which so much as- 
tonishes mankind at present. And the reason why 
they had a knowledge of architecture so perfect, as 
is manifest by the ruins now every where being dis- 
covered in the western and southern regions, is, be- 
cause they derived it from the family of Noah, at a 
time so near to the floodj that the art was not then 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 



365 



lost when they came to this country. The ruins, 
therefore, above alluded to, are specimens, not only 
of the architecture of the first age after the flood, but 
also of the antediluvian world, as it cannot be sup- 
posed that any other mode of building Avould have 
obtained so soon after that event, and when the na- 
tions were but young. Were we even to conjecture 
that iSView, the great Melchisedek of the Scriptures, 
may have visited America; we do not feel that it 
could be considered as a thing impossible, when it 
is recollected that he lived five hundred years after 
the flood. Long before five hundred years had pass- 
ed by, the children of Noah had begun to people the 
shores of the eastern ocean opposite to America, as 
well as the islands adjacent. They had a knowl- 
edge of ship building, as shown in the construction 
of the ark ; on which account mankind, and, among 
the rest, the Phoenician negroes, availed themselves 
of navigation. What, therefore, was to hinder his 
visiting the new settlements, not only on the islands, 
but those on the continent itself. Among the Mexi- 
cans there is still a tradition of the great Manco Copac, 
who once was among them, from whom they receiv- 
ed all knowledge respecting agriculture and the arts. 
Were this not so, or, at least, had not the people 
of Peru, and of Mexico, have had, at the outset in 
this country, some extraordinary impetus of the kind, 
they would not, in all probability, have arrived at so 
great a perfection, as they did in many respects, as 
was seen when the Spaniards overran those countries, 
and as is seen in the amazing ruins now being dis- 
covered, which denote a state of architectural knowl- 



366 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



edge far beyond any thing done by the native nations 
si?ice those Jirsl ages. It was along that coast and 
the countries adjacent, that the heft of the first 
population existed, when the regions of America, 
along the shores of the Atlantic, were in a wild and 
unknown state, except where the Chinese had cross- 
ed the continent, as at Yucatan, and other places 
further south. Europe, at that time, was unknown, 
as men had not found their way so soon through 
the unknown wilds from the Euphrates, a dis- 
tance of more than four thousand miles to the At- 
lantic. 

This very region, the coast of the Pacific, along 
the whole length of the Oregon, which is a country 
of nealy seven hundred miles in length, by four hun- 
dred wide, is destined to become again as populous 
as at first, and that, almost immediately, when the 
ocean of the Pacific shall again be whitened with 
the sails of commerce, carried on between America, 
China, and the Indies. Were it not much better that 
the Americans should avail themselves of all tliis 
greatness, than that the English should doit? which 
is the plan they are in pursuit of, as well as the 
subjugation of all the eastern world west of this 
country. 

The English, in their secret councils, had deter- 
mined that the United States should be bounded on 
the west by the Rocky Mountains, on the north from 
sea to sea, by the Canadas and British America, and 
the south by her own and the Mexican empire: thus, 
the design was to hem the United States in on every 
side. Now, with a view to aid in the acomplishment 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 367 

of all this, press the glorious negro qncstioji hard, 
and still harder, till the southern people shall be pro- 
voked to declare themselves independent of the North ; 
then one grand step toward the final ruin of America 
will be taken, never to be recalled. 

From the circumstance of the transportation of the 
wretched Indian men by the English to work their 
plantations in the hot countries, it is evidence beyond 
all argument to the contrary, that they do not, and 
dare not depend on the emancipated blacks to do this 
work. On this account the great argument of abo- 
litionists, namely, that the negroes will certainly work 
faithfully for their former masters, out of pure grat- 
itude for the gift of their liberty, is refuted, and 
should open the eyes of all honest abolitionists to a 
sight of the phantom the English have put them in 
chase of. 

To exalt the negro race to an equality in Christen- 
dom, politically, witli white men, will not subserve 
the purposes of humanity toward that race, as they 
are not capable of sustaining a standing on ground 
so high. Had not the Creator have estimated the 
African race as exceedingly inferior, the decree of 
servitude would not have been announced against 
them. To exalt this people, therefore, to political 
equality, will be to admit of a deteriorating element 
in the midst of superiors, which will amount to noth- 
ing more or less than a blemish in the heart of the 
institutions of the country, on account of their natu- 
ral incongeniality of natures, passions, character and 
constitutional make. 

In all the states where they are free, the negro pop. 



368 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

ulation decreases in numbers with a rapid stride, on 
account of their natural improvidence, which occa- 
sions the premature death of their infants ; the doc- 
trine of emancipation, therefore, is but a doctrine of 
death to the negro, though bearing the sweet name 
of liberty written on its front. 

That the great men of England, her rich mei 
chants, &c., are not honest in the prejudice they have 
occasioned in the world against America, on account 
of negro slavery, is seen in the remarks of Sir Rob- 
ert Peel, Premier of the Empire, who accused the 
merchants of his country of being still deeply inter- 
ested in the slave trade, and stated that the evidence 
of the fact could be produced. 

As a further and still more striking evidence of 
their hatred of human liberty, we notice their late 
operations in India, see the following account, given 
by the Rev. J. Piermont : "The sanguinary war by 
which Great Britain has subjugated millions of India, 
and the stern despotism with which she rules and 
starves them, that her merchant-princes may roll in 
splendor and bask in voluptuousness, have a voice 
which the whole thickness of the globe cannot keep 
from our ears. A more beautiful country than that 
from Cuddalone to Tanjore, in Madras, cannot be im- 
agined. The dense population and rich soil give 
their energies to each other, and produce a scene of 
surpassing loveliness. But the taxes and other causes, 
keep down the laborers to a state below that of the 
southern slaves. Go with me into the north-west 
provinces of the Bengal presidency, and I will show 
you the bleaching bones of five hundred thousand 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



369 



human beings, who perished of hunger in the short 
space of a few months. The air, for miles, was 
poisoned with the effluvia of the dead — the river 
choked with floating corpses ; jackalls, vuhures and 
crocodiles, fattened upon the bodies of men, women 
and infants, in many cases, even before life was ex- 
tinct. This occurred in British India, in the reign of 
Victoria I." 

Under the administration of Lord Clive, a fam- 
ine in the Bengal province swept off thi'ee niil- 
Uons ; and. at the same time, the British specula- 
tors had their granaries filled to repletion with 
corn, which the inhabitants were too poor to buy, 
while the grain was exported elsewhere, and sold 
at a higher price than it could be sold for in thai 
country. 

This is the people and government with whom the 
abolitionists are now coalescing on the subject of hu- 
man liberty and human rights, to the very great in- 
jury of America, and to their own expungeless 
shame. 

That abolitionists have been, and are now, in se- 
cret and open compact with the leading characters 
of England, on the subject of slavery in America, is 
shown from the speeches made in the great meeting 
of the abolitionists of both countries, held recently in 
London. 

A Mr. Wendell Phillips, in a set speech in that 
mighty convention, stated as follows: "That though 
the connection had been dissolved between this coun- 
try (England) and America, as far as holding its own 
parliaments, and directing its own affairs, yet they 



370 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

were in its vassalage, as far as talents and genius 
were concerned. The anti-slavery abolitionists had 
eloquent and devoted men in their cause, but the 
American public would not listen to them. England^ 
and England alone, was the fulcrum by which 
American slavery was to be uprooted forever. It was 
not with America (to do this), for it was beyond her 
power." 

If it is beyond the power of America, in her legis- 
lative halls, to help herself in any respect, whether 
in relation to slavery or any other matter, how is a 
foreign power to assist but in a way of aggression and 
insult, as invited by abolitionists, in their adulatory 
and fulsome speeches, as is seen in the above? In 
this speech of Mr, Phillips, it appears that he readily 
and eagerly gives the meed of praise, in relation to 
genius and talent, to America's worst enemy, the 
English, which is an infinite untruth; for, as yet, 
that government have not genius nor talent enough 
to be just, liberal and wise, toward her own sub- 
jects, but crushes them down in every corner of 
their empire, with taxations unbounded and without 
end. 

In this speech of Phillips, the English are fairly 
invited to take a part in revolutionizing America on 
the subject of slavery, when he said in that oration, 
that '^England, and England alone, was the ful- 
crum [or lever power] by which American slavery 
was to be uprooted forever." 

In that meeting, a Mr. Galusha, an American, 
who thought to say something which would greatly 
tickle the ear of the nobilitj", and, withal, if possible, 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 371 

to go beyond his brethren in extravagant remarks, 
said, "The only apology he could offer for his coun- 
try (on the subject of slavery) \vas, that it was pos- 
sessed by the devil. The delegates from America 
asked for the aid of the people of England, to cast 
this devil out." This man must be a believer in 
witchcraft. 

In some of the West India Islands, where the slaves 
have been set free, it is known that a state of almost 
universal vagrancy among the negroes has taken 
place, who do not labor more than one day in six, 
and barely enough to keep soul and body together, 
the residue of the time being spent in thieving, drink- 
ing and debauchery, which has been the character 
of the race in all ages. 

It is well known that the negro nations are un- 
conquerably fond of ardent drinks, which, in a free 
condition, is one reason of their misery, the use of 
which, in a state of slavery, they cannot indulge, as 
their masters will not allow it. Their liberation, 
therefore, would only fill the entire country with 
straggling paupers, especially the northern states, as 
is seen in all the to\\'Tis and cities of the free North, 
as very few of the blacks elevate themselves above 
a condition of vagrancy, when in a state of freedom. 
In the different states of the Union, where the negroes 
are free, there are found many little settlements of 
this people, but always in some out of the way place, 
from whence they sally forth by night to steal, in a 
small way, from the farmers of their neighborhood. 
But in the slave states, this they cannot do, as slaves 
are fed and clothed by their masters, far better than 



372 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

those who are tree, and are also withheld frons 
rambling and wandering about the country If 
such settlements and such neighbors are desirable 
appendages to white communities, then set the ne- 
groes free in all the states, when the object will be 
abundantly realized, as a reciprocation of the immu 
nities of white men in their social capacities, can nev 
er be extended to the blacks, however visionaries may 
fume and bustle to the contrary ; as the very ele- 
ments of the physical existences of the two races — 
the whites and the blacks — render such an event im- 
possible, except by amalgamation, which would be 
the end of both races, in the production of a mulatto 
species, which were produced, not by the Creative 
hand as being original, but by a sin against the laws 
of human nature. 

Were the three millions and a half of slaves in the 
South set free, the whole states would become infest- 
ed with gangs and bandit parties, in all the wild and 
more unsettled regions of the country, instead of 
cleaving heart and soul to hard labor, as does the 
white man, for the ^ke cf bettering, physically and 
morally, the condition of his race, and to keep it thus 
bettered. 

In the New Englaiid states, where the negroes 
have been free these fifty years, have they in the 
least elevated their characters or condition as men, 
who set a proper estimate on human liberty? They 
have not, for every where among them, the negro is 
seen to be a negro still. In all the free states of the 
North, it is the same with this people ; there is no 
leal elevation of character beyond the power by which 



FORTUNES. OF THE NEGRO RACE. 373 

they are surrounded, and this is the influence of the 
Sustoms and manners of the white population. 

'Twas on Euphrate's shore, confusion blent, 
To build the tower, just as the flood was spent; 
Whose architects were negroes, black and brown, 
And brought upon their work the Eternal's frown. 
So in the western world, old JViwirorf'* friends 
Are building up a tower for certain ends. 
On which 'tis written — Abolitionism : 
Meaning wild disorder, or any kind of schism. 
But God, who sees their work, may laugh to scora. 
And blast the parent ere the child is born. 



374 ORIGIN. CHARACTER, AND 



FOURTEENTH SECTION. 

Replies to various abolition questions proposed to the autlior — Cir- 
cumstances in wliicli men find themselves possessed of slaves be- 
yond their control, whicli is held to be God's providence in secur- 
ing negro slavery, in agreement with his decree by Noah — Dif- 
ference of negro sensibilities from that of the whites, on being 
separated from wives and children, proven by facts — Argument 
of abolitionists in favor of negro equality, founded on God's hav- 
ing given the rule of all animals, as much to the blacks as to the 
whites, replied to — Ham and Nimrod's opposition to the religion 
of Noah, founded on their hatred to him, on account of the curse, 
,who originated idolatry in the world — None but negroes engaged 
in the project of the tower — Happiness and well-being of the ne- 
gro race seem to lie in the direction of the white man's control — 
Fates of all the ancient negro kingdoms — Different estimate of the 
negro, respecting human liberty and its uses, from the white 
man — The races set out, after the flood, with equal opportunities, 
but who has won the prize ? — Practical undervaluing of the negro 
character by abolitioni.-ts — A curious position of abolitionists, 
which supposes the hiring out of the race of Ham to the other 
races would fulfill Noah's curse, replied to — A certain great ob- 
jection of abolitionists to slavery, which charges owners of slaves 
of giving them no wages, replied to — The patriarch, nor did the 
Jew, pay slaves any wages as hired men, with many other matters. 

During the time we have been occupied in pro- 
ducing this work, the question has been frequently 
asked the writer, if he does not consider it a Christian 
duty to enslave and hold in bondage, individuals of 
the African race, seeing that we build our whole be- 
hef in this matter upon the Divine Oracles ? There- 
lore, say they, ought not Christian meu. and all oih- 



FOllTUNKS, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 6i O 

ers, to make tiie ihing binding on their very con 
sciences, and pcrscveringly assist in the acconipHsh- 
ment of so great a duty, as we should any and all 
injunctions of the Scripluies not abrogated. Our re- 
ply to this question is, that the Scriptures do not co?n- 
mand the enslavement of the negro race, but they 
give a history of that people, in which is related the 
account of their being cursed hy the mouth of Noah, 
and of the indorsement of that same curse in the law 
of Moses, giving the riglit and iirivilege to the races 
of Shem and Japheth to enslave them, if they will, 
in which practice not even the New Testament op- 
poses any objection. 

But, says one, if it was not a command that the 
two races of Shem and Japheth should enslave the 
race of Ham, how then could there be any certainty 
that the judicial decree of God, as announced by 
Noah, that they should be servants, be secured to take 
place ? Our answer to tliis is, that the commands of 
God make nothing sure, as ail men are free to diso- 
bey as they are free to obey ; but the decrees of God 
are sure, without man's obedience or disobedience — 
the Deily taking care so to shape things and circum- 
stances, that his veracity shall not be impeached. It 
is on this ground, and no other ground, that the ju 
dicial decree of God, respecting Ham and his posteri- 
ty, was made sure to take place, which, as all the 
world knows, has been fulfilled, and will, doubtless, 
still continue to be thus fulfilled, in some shape or 
other, till the end of the world. 

There can be no doubt but the chief means by 
which the Divine wisdom has secured the accom- 



>70 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



plishment of the personal enslavement of Ham's race, 
is the position they hold in relation to the other two 
races. The white and red men of the first ages, as 
well as the same races noiv, being actually of a more 
noble and intellectual description of ^ersow and co^^^^- 
tenance, overawe the more imbecile and cringing ne- 
gro, who, on this account, naturally looks up for pro- 
tection and support to the more conservative and 
powerful races of Shem and Japheth. This being so, 
which all men must acknov/ledge, they have iiaiu- 
rally and fortuitously become slaves, in myriads of 
instances, and thus have secured the same fate to 
their offspring in perpetuity. In this position there 
is nothing that savors of sin, as it is but the weaker 
seeking protection of the stronger — it is the natural 
operation of circumstances, not to be avoided without 
much trouble and resistance. How many freed blacks 
there are in this country, who have gone again to 
their former masters, having found it impossible to 
take as good care of themselves free, as when slaves. 
But there are other ways in the mutations of society, 
occasioned by the revolution of nations, in which, as 
it relates to individuals, there is no sin to be charged 
upon them, though the negro race fall into their hands 
as personal slaves, which is under the direction of 
that Eye who will secure the accomplishment of his 
decrees. 

As it respects the cases of millions of families in 
this and all countries, they find, as children and heirs, 
that they are in possession of black slaves, without 
their knowledge and consent, the same as the rest of 
inherited estates and property. So it may be that, in 



FORTUNES, OF THE NF:GR0 RACE. 



m 



most cases, where the negro man is found a slave, 
that some uncontrollable circumstance at first neces- 
sitated the purchase of the black man as a slave — 
thus securing, without sin, the servitude of millions. 
Africa herself, in all ages, has stood ready with her 
billions of slaves, to tempt the cupidity of men in 
their purchase, selling their own race for the merest 
trifle a head — this has always been done by their 
chiefs. In this, who is to blame ? The negro is too 
Ignorant and imbecile to be charged with sin, in the 
proper sense of the word, on this account ; and the 
purchasers, what else could they do but take them 
when offered, as their condition in life could not be 
made worse by the transfer, but far better ? Thus the 
Divine Providence, in an arbitrary manner, has ta- 
ken care to accomplish its own judicial appointment 
of the negro race to slavery. 

Abolitionists, in their opposition to the principle of 
negro slavery, contend that, as the Supreme Being 
dealt severely in the way of judgment, with the 
Egyptians, for refusing to let the Hebrews go free 
from their condition of bondage in that country ; it is 
made clear, therefore, as they believe, that he is not 
pleased with the practice which enslaves the black 
race. But, between the two cases there appears to 
be no parallel — no likeness of condition — on which 
account, though God punished and rebuked the Egyp- 
tians for their behavior toward the Hebrews in that 
aflair, yet this furnishes no reason why we are tc 
believe that, therefore, negro slavery is against his 
will. 

The Hebrews were sent from the land of Canaan 
16* 



378 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

down to Egypt by God himself, where they were re- 
ceived as citizens, and placed in the richest part of 
the country, namely, in Goshen, as in the hollow of 
his hand, who preserved them there during four hun- 
dred years, till such time as he should be ready to 
return them again to the land of Canaan, as he had 
promised to Abraham ; Gen. xv, 16. We do not 
learn from the Scriptures that the Hebrews, during 
their stay in Egypt, were slaves in the abject ox j)rop- 
erty sense of the word, and that they were bought 
and sold as such among the Egyptians; but that 
they were vassals only, and were compelled to pay 
a heavy tax, in labor, to the government, which, to- 
ward theclose of their stay in that country, became 
exorbitant in the extreme. 

Respecting this labor, which they were compelled 
to render, it does not appear that it was exacted du- 
ring the roliole time they were in Egypt, but only to- 
ward the end of that sojourn. We come to the 
conclusion that they v.'ere not held as personal slaves, 
the same as negroes are in the southern states, because, 
it is seen from Exod. xii, 32, that they had vast herds 
of flocks and of cattle. If flocks and herds, then 
they had tiie possession and occupancy oiland, which 
would also suppose houses, in which they dwelt, en- 
joying all the domiciliary appendages of society, gov- 
erning themselves, yet in a tributary condition. That 
this was the fact, is shown from Exod. ix, 7, where 
it is written, that "Pharaoh sent, and behold, there 
was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead." But 
to what place did Pharaoh send to find this out? To 
Goshen, the country which was given to the Israel- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 379 

ites, when they ctxmcjirst into Egypt, as is seen from 
Gen. xlvii, 4, 11; which Goshen was in the land of 
Ramases, the very best in the country of Egypt. If 
the Hebrews were actual slaves, as persons are who 
are bought and sold, then it was impossible for them 
to possess property, as land, houses, cattle, and herds, 
or to have maintained a system of nobility or elder- 
ship, which they certainly did, as appears from Exod. 
xii, 21, who at the very ti7ne of their oppression and 
of the plagues, hved in Goshen, as is evident from 
Exod. viii, 22. Had they been slaves, this could not 
have been, as people of thai cast have no titles, or 
dignitaries, no nobility of any description, property, 
or social compacts, as the Hebrews had at the very 
time when Moses demanded their release from Pha- 
raoh, and when he delivered them out of the coun- 
try. 

The bondage, therefore, to which they were 
subjected, was that of vassalage, and the payment 
of exorbitant taxes, required to be paid in labor, be- 
yond their power to perform. It is very likely, that 
the persons who performed this labor, in making 
brick, were drawn out by draughts, so many from 
every hundred, and then sent to the king's w^orks for 
a given time, and then returned again, when others 
were draughted in their turn. Had this not been so, 
the Hebrews could not have had possessions in tho 
country, or maintained any form of society whatever, 
as they certainly did. 

The E^^yptians, from their earliest history, prac- 
ticed buying and selling slaves of the property char- 
acter, as is seen from the history of Joseph, who was 



380 OPaCIN, CHARACTER, AND 

sold as a slave to an Egyptian, by the Ishmaelites, 
and from other sources. But the Hebrews came into 
Egypt, not as slaves, but as citizens, in full fellow- 
ship and equality with the lords of Egypt, in virtue 
of their relation to Joseph, the savior of Egypt in 
the days of the famine. We do not find that the 
Scriptures have blamed the Egyptians because they 
held the Hebrews in a condition of vassalage, but 
because they abused them, and would not let them 
go, when God called for them by the ministration of 
Moses. We see no parallel, therefore, between the 
condition of the Hebrews in Egypt, and the slavery 
of the negro race, as ordained from the lips of Noah, 
and from Mount Sinai. 

Egypt was the house in which God saw fit to place 
the seed of Abraham, till such time as the nations 
of the land of Canaan should become ripe for destruc- 
tion, when he intended to take the Hebrews away 
from the Egyptians, as he had promised Abraham; 
Gen. XV, 13, 14. The sojourn of the people of Israel 
in the country of Egypt, was not, therefore, a state 
of bond slavery, in which the Egyptians claimed and 
held them as their property, but only as a nation of 
vassals, providentially placed among them, who, on 
account of their rapid increase in the country oppress- 
ed them grievously, in order to keep them from be- 
coming numerous, as appears from Exod. i, 9-11. 
Had they not been a body politic in Egypt, they 
could not have acquired wealth, so as to have left the 
country possessed of great substance, besides that 
which the Egyptians, in their fear, bestowed upon 
Ihera, when they went out of the country, toward 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 381 

the Red Sea. Egypt, it is true, is often alluded to in 
the Scriptures as having been the house of bondage 
to the Hebrews, and their condition while there, 
that of hondmen, yet of tlie vassal character, not 
property slaves ; states of human being widely dif- 
ferent from each other. 

The United States, while under the yoke of Great 
Britain, was a condition of national bondage, but no 
man was a bond slave on that account, and yet, in 
PRINCIPLE, their condition was just the same with 
the Hebrews in Egypt, except the latter were more 
severely treated. There were many reasons why 
the Supreme Being saw fit to place the hneage of the 
Messiah in the condition the Hebrews endured in 
the country of Egypt; one of which was, that, there- 
by, occasion might arise for him to exhibit his power 
as the God of the universe, by which means the in- 
significance and nothingness of all other gods might 
be seen. The judg-ments, therefore, which were let 
loose in te?i sigilal displays upon Egypt, as well as 
the death of many ten thousands in the Red Sea, 
were in pursuance of that design, as well, also, as to 
punish the haughty and cruel negro king of the Nile 
for not letting the Hebrews go, when they were called 
for by the God of the universe. 

The rebuke, therefore, of the Egyptians, on that 
occasion, affords no argument in support of that opin- 
ion, that God was ever displeased with negro slavery, 
as, between the two cases, the Hebrews in Egyjjt, 
and the negroes under the curse, present no parallels 
to each other, as to the reasons or principle of the 
occurrences. If the argument which abolitionists 



382 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



draw from that history and circumstance, is correct 
namely, that God is opposed to negro slavery, how- 
came it to pass, in a few months after those awful 
displays of his power upon the Egyptians, that he 
gave a permit to the Hebrews to enslave the negro 
heathen people of old Canaan, in the very law of Mo- 
ses, given from Heaven on Mount Sinai ? Ilj as ab- 
olitionists say, God punished the Egyptians for hold- 
ing the Hebrews in a state of slavery, and from that 
alone, how could he justify the enslaving of the Ca- 
naanite heathen immediately after? The idea is 
preposterous, irreconcilable and absurd. Thus falls 
to the ground, every argument and position which 
abolitionists conjure up from the Scriptures, which 
goes to contradict the de-cree of God on the negro 
question. 

There is one trait among the incidents of negio 
slavery, upon which abolitionists fix their eye with 
an awful and fierce intensity, calling on all mankind 
to come and see the horrid sight ; and this is the 
circumstance of separating the families of slaves, by 
their being sometimes sold to other masters. On this 
subject, abolitionists argue the same as they would 
were the case their own, imagining that negro parents 
feel such a circumstance as acutely, and as sentimen- 
tally as white families would under similar circum- 
stances. But this is a mistake, as we believe, and 
does not apply to the negro's case, as it would to that 
of the whites, on account of a want of the higher intel- 
lectual faculties of the mind of the blacks. On occa- 
sions of severe bereavement, the feelings of negro pa- 
rents seem to be of shorter duration ; as it is well 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



383 



known that the bond of marriage and family obliga- 
tion with that race, is of but secondary considerations, 
or of slight influence, as a knowledge o/, and a par- 
ticipation in, high intellectual love and elevated afiec- 
tions, is not reached by the black man's soul. 

On this very account, the desire of promiscuous 
intercourse prevails in negro society far more than 
among the whites, and is carried out in their practice. 
The power of this trait of their constitutional make, 
no doubt operates in lessening their attachments to re- 
fined family endearments, so that when separated 
from each other by being sold, it is not so grievous a 
thing as it would be to the mind and feelings of a 
white man or woman. 

This trait of the negro character was always thus, 
a striking proof of which is related by Herodotus, 
Vol. vi, p. 77, as follows : " At a certain time, when 
the Persians had the mastery of Egypt, there was a 
tribe who had revolted, and after an unsuccessful 
struggle against their conquerors, the male part of 
the population of their citadel or town, came to a 
resolution of secretly making their escape, leaving 
their families and kindred behind to look out for 
themselves, while they should reach, if possible, 
the Ethiopian country, that lay at the head of the 
Nile. 

"But as soon as it was known to the Persians, they 
pursued the fugitives and soon came up with them, 
Avhen a parley took place. The Persians endeavored 
to persuade the negroes to return, by alluding to their 
gods, their wives and children, from whom they were 
to be forever separated, if they persisted in their project. 



384 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

But when this appeal was made, to the dearest sen- 
sibilities of the human mind, one of their number 
leaped out from the midst of his fellows, and in a 
loud stentorian voice, said, as he exposed himself im- 
properly, wherever v/e go {perveho talis) more wives 
and more children can be obtained, when they took to 
their heels and were soon out of sight in the wilder- 
ness." 

In agreement with this disposition, it is said by all 
travelers, and those acquainted with the tme African 
negro character, that parents will sell their little chil- 
dren for ahnost any trifle, as a piece of clolh, a girdle 
of beads, a bottle of u-ine or brandt/, or any trinket 
which strikes their fancy ; and this they will do with 
the knowledge of the certain enslavement of their 
oifspring. — " Universal Traveler ^'^ ■page, 404. 

We know, it can be said, that the Jew would sell 
his child, but it was with the knowledge of its re- 
lease in six years to freedom again. It may also be 
said, that the Circassians, who are white, will sell 
their daughters to the Turks, but this is done, not to 
enslave them, but to exalt them to the honor of be- 
ing a member of some great man's harem — this is 
owing to their false education, not insensibility of na- 
ture. 

But the negro man sells his babe as an abject slave, 
brutally, for almost no reward, never to see it again, 
the transaction taking place on the part of the negro 
parent with all the apathy and indifference they would 
sell a dog. 

In all this, does it not appear that there is a differ- 
ence between the affections of the two races toward 



FOUTUNES, OF THE JvEGRO RACE. 



385 



their offspring, and that the separating of negro pa- 
rents from their children is not as grievous as aboli- 
tionists seem to believe ? 

This being true, in compliment to the ameliorating 
genius of the age, it were as well, perhaps, to discour- 
age occurrences of the kind— it would be more pa- 
triarchal and fatherly. 

It is not very hkely that Ham and his family were 
very well pleased with the curse and denunciation 
of Noah, which put them, Avith all who should pro- 
ceed from their house, under the ban of everlasting 
servitude to the races of their brethren. This cir 
cumstance, beyond all doubt, raised up in the minds 
of that people, an unconquerable hatred, not only to- 
ward Nuah. but also toward Shem and Japheth, with 
their entire posterities, in those ages. 

On this account, it was that Ham left the paternal 
tents and altar of sacrifice, near Ararat, much soon- 
er than did the other sons, wandering still further 
down the Euphrates toward the sea, till they came 
to the great flats of iShinar, where Nimrod, the grand- 
son of Ham, commenced the foundation of his em- 
pire, and where he, with Ham and all the race, set 
about building the tower, as a defense against another 
flood, and as a temple of idolati^y and a rallying 
point for their tribes in coming ages. It was, no 
doubt, on the account of Noah's curse that Nimrod, 
the great leading spirit, like Satan among the fallen 
angels, opposed himself so cruelly with all his pow- 
er, to the religion of Noah, as propagated by /S/iem, 
who was Melchisedek His grand object was to pro- 
duce and consolidate a power by which to protect 
17 



386 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

his race against the threatened servitude of Noah, his 
grand-sire, announced in the curse, as well as to es- 
tablish a contrary system of religion, which would 
subserve the same end. 

At the time of the confusion of the language, there 
was none of the races of Shem and Japheth there ; 
that operation — the building of the tower — was whol- 
ly of negro invention, who had the requisite geomet- 
rical knowledge at the time, derived from the house 
of Noah, who brought this knowledge, with all other, 
from beyond the flood. On this account, for some 
hundred years, the first people of those countries had 
more scientific knowledge than the nations, many of 
them, had a thousand years afterward. 

But, how is it known that the races of Shem and 
Japheth did not participate in the wicked project of 
the tower? It is shown from the natural antipathy 
of the children of Shem toward the blacks, and also 
from its being an idolati^ous temple, or tower, from 
which the descendants of Shem and Japheth would 
turn with horror, especially while Noah, Shem, Ar- 
phaxad, and others of the patriarchs of the holy line, 
were yet alive, and the dictators of the religion and 
morals of the people. 

Josephus says, in his Jewish Antiquities, p. 19, that 
Nimrod was a bold man and of great muscular 
strength. The Jewish Rabbi say, also, in their tra- 
dition, that he was a mighty giant, and of a morose, 
cruel and savage temper, a tyrant among his people, 
who forced men from the fear of God, threatening to 
be revenged on God for destroying the world by wa- 
ter. Moses says he was a mighty hunter before the 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 387 

Lord; to which the Rabbi add, that he not only 
hunted and destroyed the wild animals which abound- 
ed beyond measure in that early age, but that he also 
killed men, unless they would unite with him against 
God and the religion of Noah. 

That the blacks of that age and of the house of 
Nimrod were violent persecutors of the race and re- 
ligion of Shem and Noah, as related by Josephus, is 
supported by a Perslati iraditio?i, wdiicli says that 
they having, at a certain time, got into their hands a 
child of the family of Tcj-a/i, which was Abraham, 
they cast it into a strong fire. But wdien they looked 
to see it writhe and agonize in the flames, behold, the 
place of the fire had become a hedge of roses, in full 
bloom, where the infant lay embedded, as on a couch 
of do\vn formed of those flowers. 

NiMROD, Hain, and coadjutors, therefore, w^ere the 
great fathers of idolatry in the world after the flood, 
who inducted the people into their system of religion 
by combining the indulgence of one of the strongest 
passions of animal nature with the worship of the 
gods, making such indulgence one of the chief vir- 
tues, because, from this indulgence proceeded the 
human race, as they believed, by which means the 
world was peopled — a religion in exact agreement 
with the naturally obscene propensities of the negro 
race. 

In the bosom of a negro man, the idea of liberty, 
freedom and independence, docs not give rise to the 
same sensations, hopes, and expectations, that it does 
in the bosom of the whites. To the mind of a slave, 
or even of a free black man, with but small excep- 



388 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

tion, the idea of liberty is but the idea of a holyday, 
in which they are to be let loose from all restraint 
or control ; they are to play, work, or sleep, as 
may suit their inclination, following out, to the ut- 
most, the perfect indulgence of indolence, stupidity, 
and the animal passions. 

But to the mind of the white man, liberty is the 
means of the moral and physical improvement of 
himself and race ; it is the Jield of labor, out of which 
will arise, as wheat from the seed, a harvest of /vnor^rZ- 
edge, intellectual refinement, well ordered society, the 
advancement of the arts and sciences, government of 
the passions, with every good thing that can charm 
the elevated mind and conduce to the bliss of human 
existence. The races set out with equal opportuni- 
ties, at the subsiding of the flood, but who has won 
and taken the prize of power — of social and mental 
improvement. 

It cannot be denied, that, to the perceptions of a 
white man, the negro's case is a hard one, and was 
fully foreknown to the Creator, who is merciful and 
kind ; yet he did not see fit 7iot to create them, and to 
create them in the loins of Ham, a degraded race, as 
well as to appoint them to servitude, while the father 
of the race was yet alive. If the hard lot of this peo- 
ple affords at present a reason why they should be 
set free, such as are in slavery, it can be said in re- 
ply, that the same reason existed at first, in the eye 
of the Divine foresight, with all the force that it does 
now. 

Such a course, however, namely, not to create them, 
did not please the Maker, as it was agreeable to him 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 389 

that they should exist, and exist as we find them, a 
race totally different from the whites, in every respect 
that can be thought of, except that they are humarij 
but of the lowest order, and eminently adapted to a 
state of servitude. 

But, says an abolitionist, we do not disagree to the 
African race being servants, if they desire it — that is, 
hired servants — as in this way the Scriptures, or word 
of prophesy by Noah, can as well be fulfilled as that 
the race should be slaves. To this position we re- 
ply, that it is extremely short-sighted ; as he who 
hires himself out to labor is not a slave servant, in 
any sense of the word, but is a free man, having, at 
his own will, disposed of his labor, not of his body, 
as he saw fit. The Scriptures, in the law of Moses, 
make a great distinction between a slave and a hired 
man. See Levit. xxv, 39, 40, where it is written as 
follows : "Thou shalt not compel him [a Hebrew] to 
serve as a bond servant, but as a hired servant." But, 
notwithstanding the discriminating remark of Moses, 
abolitionists can discover no difference in the two 
cases, confounding them together, because they will, 
and not because they do not knoio better. Were this 
the way in which the spirit of God directed Noah to 
ciu'se the race of Ham with servitude, and the way 
in which ho intended its fulfillment, namely, that 
they were generally to hire themselves out to work 
for other people, then it would follow that this curse 
applied as much to both the other races as it did to 
Ham's race; for there are found as many laborers 
among the other races, and especially the whites, who 
work on hire, as among the blacks, and a tl^ '':=r)nd 



390 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



limes as many, as they are a more industrious peo- 
ple. Surely, the Supreme Being could never have 
intended to call a man cursed because he should hire 
himself out to labor : there must be, therefore, some 
worse meaning attached to the idea of a bond servant, 
than the hiring of one's self out. On this view of the 
subject, bond service cannot be made out, as personal 
bondage supposes the holding of our bodies as prop- 
erty; consequently, when Moses said to the Hebrews, 
that if they wanted bondmen and bondmaids^ who 
were to serve th&m forever, they were to buy them — • 
not hire them^of the heatJien, and to hold them by 
compulsion, as a possession for themselves and their 
children after them, which they could not do with a 
hired man. 

From thisYiew of the subject, it is easy to perceivu 
that the arguments of abolitionists entirely neutralize 
the force of the denunciation of Noah, respecting 
Ham's race, causing it to refer as much to o?ie people 
as to another, who may chance to hire themselves out 
to labor, making it a curse to do so, and they who 
do it a cursed race. Is not this a fair result of their 
position ? 

But, says an abolitionist, we do not believe that the 
curse of Noah signified or related, in any sense, to 
such a thing as the perso7ial bondage of any of the 
race of Ham, with a view to their bodily enslavement ; 
that curse, we hold, was wholly of a national char- 
acter, and was fulfilled, as it related to Sheni's rule, 
when the Jews subdued old Canaan ; and, as to Ja- 
phetKs rule, when the white nations, under Alexander, 
destroyed oM Tyre and Zidon, witli other negro 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 391 

countries, putting them under tribute and national 
servitude. 

To this, as to the other problem, we must reply, 
that it will not do, as, by this mode of interpretation, 
all the other nations of the earth, who have alternate- 
ly sabdued each other by war, policy, or stratagem, 
and laid one another under vassalage and tribute, 
are, therefore, equally cursed Avith the Race of Ham, 
as to the quintescence of the thing, as it was no worse 
for the negro Canaanites to be put under vassalage 
and tribute, than any other people, so that they were 
no more under a Divine curse than any of the rest 
of mankind when conquered. Wherefore, in this 
way of explaining the text, abolitionists make it void 
and indefinite, as to its particular application, which 
the whole historj^, as written by Moses in the ninth 
chapter of Genesis, disallows. 

There is but one way remaining to give that scrip- 
ture, Gen. ix, as well as the clause in the law, Levit. 
XXV, a consistent meaning ; and that is to allow that 
both recognized the individual and bodily slavery of 
the race of Ham by the two other races — the circum- 
stance of their paying tribute, at any time, as a peo- 
ple, to other nations who might conquer them, hav- 
ing nothing to do toward the fulfillment of that de- 
nunciation of Noah, as that decree related not to na- 
tional, but to individual slavery. If this is not the 
true sense of those passages, and especially that of 
Gen. ix, 25-27, it would remain, as yet, uncertain 
whether that curse or decree has been in any degree 
fulfilled. 

The fond idea, or we may saj^ the fanaticism and 



392 ORIGIN. CHARACTER, AND 

foolish notion of abolitionists, which supposes the 
hiring out of the race of Ham, at their oion discre- 
tion, to the other races, falls, therefore, to the gronnd, so 
far as it relates to the fulfilling of the curse of Noah up- 
on the posterity of Ham, his youngest, but wretched- 
ly profligate, son. Thus, having disposed of the fore- 
going objections and positions of abolitionists, we now 
address ourself to combat another error of their cre- 
ating. This is, the circumstance of the slaves labor- 
ing, as they say, for no reward or wages ; and, there- 
fore, slavery is not according to the principle of eternal 
rectitude, but is a sin of the blackest dye. 

Now, do not frown, dear reader, when we tell you 
that this is not true of slavery, as slaves do not labor 
without a hope of reward ; and that reward they gen- 
erally receive. It is true, however, that their wages 
is not as inuch as many other laborers obtain, and 
then again, it is much 7nore than many receive who 
are not slaves. The laboring classes of men over the 
whole earth, and among all people, operate under 
very different circumstances, which has been the case 
in all ages, and will continue to be thus to the end 
of time. In all countries, minors, apprentices and 
children, labor till of age, for no other reward than 
their food, shelter and clothing. In millions of cases, 
men labor all their lives, and never receive anything 
more than their food and raiment, and yet, they were 
notbondmen, but free. Do not black slaves receive 
as much as this, and is not this a reivard to which 
they look with all the eagerness of any other kind of 
laborers ? Do they not hail the hours of meal times 
as the bright spot of their destiny, with as mwch joy 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



393 



as do other laborers ? The clothes they receive, are 
they not better far than their original nakedness in 
the wilds of Africa ? Who rewarded them then 7 

Millions of free men over the whole earth, do not 
receive as much wages as do the negroes of the slave 
states in America; but, with their freedom, actually 
starve to death, even in England and her dependen- 
cies, not from idleness, but from oppression. Among 
freemen, how many beggars do we meet with, who 
have received no wages ? But among negro slaves 
there are no beggars. Food and raiment is all that 
a man can receive on the earth, which is as sure to a 
negro slave as to the rest, and is the whole reward 
of animal labor and of animal existence. The rich, 
though they control more than they can individually 
consume, have, in reality, nothing, after all, more 
than a slave, except injurious and ruinous luxuries. 
Wherefore, as it respects mere physical existence, 
slaves are on a perfect level with the rest of man- 
kind, which is not only philosophically, but scriptur- 
ally, true; for Solomon says, Eccl. vi, 7, that "a// 
the labor of man is for his mouth^'' which is his por- 
tion and reward under the sun. 

Negro slavery, therefore, on that account, is not 
contrary to the principle of Eternal rectitude. It is 
true, however, that their hope of speculation is not as 
great as it is among the whites ; yet the amount, up- 
on the whole, which they receive, is just the same, 
as their food, raiment and shelter are made much 
surer to them, especially in Christian countries, than 
among the free blacks. Tlie servitude of the race of 
Ham, to the latest era of mankuid, is necessary to the 



394 ORIGIN. CHARACTER, AND 

veracity of God himself, as by it is fulfilled one of 
the eldest of the decrees of the Scriptures, namely, 
that of Noah, which placed the race as servants un- 
der the other races. This is noticed by Newton in 
the same light, which has been, and noio is, being 
every where fulfilled, with all the punctuality that 
all the other decrees are, and have been, fulfilled ; 
and should convince all abolitionists of their unavail- 
ing error, in opposing this great and nearly most an- 
cient decree of the Divine Oracles. 

God is just and good^ in the adaptation of circum- 
stances to the well-being of every creature of the 
earth, which is as manifest in the negro's case as in 
the case of every other grade of animal being. If 
the white man is more intellectual than a negro, so 
much the more are his cares and resjionsihilities. 
On this principle, we notice, that in the negro char- 
acter is fixed, as a kind of antidote or recompense for 
slavery, a certain disposition to levity^ peculiar to 
themselves, which takes off much of the weight of 
their seeming sorrows. This enables them more 
cheerfully to endure, without thought, their condition 
of servitude. One trait of this peculiar character of 
the negroes is, their fondness of singing and whistling, 
in which they universally indulge, even under cir- 
cumstances which would make a white man weep. 
They generally have voices of the most melodious 
character, and can whistle with their thick lips, bet- 
ter than all mankind beside, in the sounds of which- 
they forget all things else, rejoicing in the lightness and 
levity of their pecuHar natures. Who has not wit- 
nessedthis, that has seen and noticed thispeople at all? 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 395 

Thus mercifully is thrown into the negro's being, 
circumstances which go to make his condition toler- 
able, though created black and doomed to servitude, 
rendering him, upon the whole, not less happy than 
are the other races of men. 

Thus, with balanced eye, the great All-seeing 
Has made each race with an equal being — 
Has with the ills of life some blessing mix'd, 
Though in our grades a general state is fix'd. 
The white man soars, as with an eagle's flight, 
While the black man dips in the wave of night; 
And both, rejoicing in their sev'ral spheres, 
Should offer thanks in the Eternal's ear*. 



396 ORIGIN CHARACTER. AND 



FIFTEENTH SECTION. 

That the Gospel doctrines and their tendencies is against negro slav- 
ery, as asserted by abolitionists, shown to be a mistake — Exami- 
nation of the golden rule of our Savior, in relation to this mat- 
ter — That the condition of slaves among the Jews was a condition 
of comparative comfort, as is asserted by abolitionists, refuted — 
Care of slaves, as far back in time as the days of Job and ^brtt- 
ham — The subject of judicial law and the law of lore examined, 
in relation to negro slavery, and are found to harmonize — The 
great and stronghold of abolitionism in support of negro equality, 
and the propriety of amalgamation by marriages, founded on God's 
striking Miriam, the sister of Moses, with leprosy, because she 
found fault with her brotherfor having married an Ethiopian wo- 
man, overturned and shown to be blasphemous — Curious fact of 
the blood of the negro race being guarded against, as affecting the 
blood of the line through which the Messiah was to come — First 
preaching of the Gospel directed to the cowiin'e* inhabited by white 
men, not negroes — This was done afterward — All the present arts 
of the world nearly of white men's invention, not negro's, with 
many other deeply interesting subjects. 

In the folloMnng pages, we are to meet a few more 
objections of abolitionism, as well as present the read- 
er with some other matters, when we shall finish the 
labor of this work. It is said, by this class of men, 
that the benevolence of the Gospel contemplates the 
personal happiness of every human being ; and as 
indivulnal freedom is an item in the sum of mortal 
enjoyments, therefore, the Gospel, in its spirit and 
tendencies, is against slavery of every description, 
and demands its abolishment. 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 397 

But, we answer this position, by saying, that, al- 
though the spirit and tendencies of the Christian rehg- 
ion most assuredly does contemplate the entire and 
perfect moral happiness of the whole human race, 
upon certain conditions, as obedience to its commands, 
&c., yet it does not, and cannot interfere, as we have 
before said, with ihe judgments, decrees, oi judicial 
acts of God, until the 2)Wjjoses of such acts are ac- 
complished in the earth. Although the Gospel, as 
announced in the New Testament, is a message of 
benevolence from Heaven toward the sufferers of 
the earth, yet death is not, and cannot be counteracted, 
as yet, by its influence, because death came by the 
appointment or judicial act of God, on the account 
of sin, placing the direful circumstance beyond the 
redeeming nature of that great system of atonement. 
Neither can it affect matters of less importance, such 
as the circumstance of man's being coinpelled by a 
Divine judgment to get his bread in the sweat of 
his face, with pain, toil, and uncertainty. The case 
of the woman, who was placed by the same power, 
judicially, in a certain circumstance, which is that 
of great pain and danger, is also placed beyond the 
reach of the benevolence of the spirit of the Gospel, 
because she hearkened to the voice of the serpent, in 
the matter of the forbidden tree. Does the Gospel, 
and its benevolent principles, remove one item of the 
vast amount of what is called natural evil, which 
the human race now is heir to, such as sickness, pov- 
erty, accidents, mistakes, difference of men's opinions, 
which are all the effects of the judicial proceedings 
of the Creator toward man, on the account of sin. 



398 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

Now, if the spirit and tendencies of religion, can 
not, as yet, remove these disabihties or obstacles to 
man's happiness in this world, how, therefore, can it 
be expected that it can alter the doom of the negro 
race, which, as the Bible establishes, is founded 
on the same foundation, that of the decree of God, 
and raises a barrier which is impassable and insur- 
mountable to all earthly power: even the famous 
words of our Lord called the Golden Rule, cannot ap- 
ply here. Neither does this rule appear with power 
to break down any civil establishment of society ; it 
was not so intended or understood, by the first disci- 
ples and writers of the New Testament. It was not 
intended by that great and good doctrine, that serv- 
ants and masters, debtors and creditors, rich and 
poor, should change condition, or even to be put on 
a ^ja/' with each other by that precept of the Lord. 
It signified nothing more than that all men, under all 
circumstances of trouble, should do by each other in 
all kindness, just what they would reasonably desire 
done to themselves in like circumstances. This pre- 
cept, therefore, was not meant to reach the case of 
slavery, as to its aholishmem, any more than it was 
the other cases, as above named. It enjoined on 
masters to extend to servants, minors, and slaves 
all needed tenderness and consideration, as they 
themselves could reasonably desire were they in a 
like condition. 

The patriarch Job did thus toward his slaves, and 
no more, see chapter xxxi, 13, where he says, that he 
did not " despise the cause of his man or maid serv- 
ant," and yet he did not inanumit them, after all. It 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 399 

will not answer to extend that rnle to extremes, as 
by persevering in such a course, we should unhinge 
all the regulations of society, at the voice of every 
complaint, effecting nothing but a continued change 
of circumstances, from one extreme to another, with- 
out adding a whit to the comfort of any body per- 
manently. 

Abolitionists contend, in their publications and lec- 
tures, that the condition of bondmen among the Jews, 
was a condition of comparative comfort and equality 
with their masters, and that the law of Moses made 
it so. But we have never been able to discover this, 
while we have found the entire contrary. On this 
subject, the statement of Adam Clarke may have 
some weight, as no man on the earth was better inform- 
ed respecting Oriental manners in those ages. See 
his comment on the passage above quoted, from Job 
xxxi, 13, as follows: '-In ancient times, slaves had 
no action at law against their masters; they might 
dispose of them as they did their cattle or any other 
property. The slave might complain, and the mas- 
ter might hear him if he pleased, but he was not com- 
pelled to do so. Job states that he admitted them, 
however, to civil rights, and far from preventing their 
case from being heard, he was ready to perjnit them 
to complain, even against himself, and to give them 
all the benefit of the law." Job was a righteous man, 
and in that thing did right; and yet we do not learn 
that he set his slaves free. Let every slaveholder 
do the same. Jose-phus states, Antiquities of the Jews, 
book 4, p. 130, that slaves were not allowed to be 
witnesses in any court. 



400 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

From all this, it appears that the case of the negro 
slaves of those times, and among the Jews in par- 
ticular, was in no wise superior, if it was as good, as 
in America, except in such cases as when they fell 
into the hands of men as good as were Job and Abra- 
ham. Consequently, the notion that the slaves of the 
Jews, under the law of Moses, was a comfortable 
condition of life, as held by abolitionists, falls to the 
ground, as does most of their doctrines and positions. 

It is affirmed by abolitionists, that because God, at 
first and prior to the fall, and as soon as he had cre- 
ated man, said, that every thing which was made, 
was very good, that, therefore, negro man was made 
equal with white men. But this comment of theirs 
fails, when it is recollected that there was, at that 
time, no negroes in existence, nor never would have 
been, had not God have seen fit to produce them, about 
one thousand five hundred and fifty-six years after 
the original creation of man, in the way and manner 
already described on the first pages of this work, and 
soon after to appoint him to slavery. 

It has been urged upon the attention of the writer 
of this work, by abolitionists, that we ought serious- 
ly to examine the difference there is between Jiidi' 
rial law and Divine law, in relation to the enslaving 
negro men in ancient times. The judicial law, said 
I hat the Jews might buy and possess slaves, but the 
Divine law says, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
self Is slavery consistent with this Divine law? 

In answer to this question, we dare not array these 
two laws against each other, seeing they are both of 
the same orisin. We think it were a much safer 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



401 



course to say, that these laws, so different in their ef- 
fects, have a high regard for each other and do not 
encroach upon their respective powers and appUca- 
tions. 

Judicial law requires execution, and the law of 
love delights in mercy; but till an equivalent is paid 
down, mercy can do nothing. Now who has redeem- 
ed the negro race from the curse of Noah and the 
force of that judicial law? It has never been done. 

The law of love says, love thy neighbor as thyself. 
But who is our neighbor? We answer, that our 
neighbors are of various descriptions, and the Divine 
laiD says, love them all, in their respective characters, 
whether slaves or free, rich or poor, wise or simple, 
learned or unlearned, black, white or red, good or bad, 
and all this without politically meddling with their 
domestic affairs. 

The Supreme Being having seen fit to adjudge the 
negro race to a condition of servitude among men, 
are we not, therefore, bound to believe that this ad- 
judication is not contrary or inconsistent with the 
law of love as it relates to man ; as we see that we 
may love a slave in the religious sense of the word, 
and yet have nothing to do with his state of bondage, 
unless we have an inclination to manumit them if 
they are our own property; but there is no law wliich 
requires this, whether judicial or Divine, or it would 
have been noticed by St. Paul, when he had the 
subject of negro slavery under his pen, upon which 
we have already treated in a former section of this 
work. 
• There is another argument to answer, which is 

■ 17* 



402 OJIIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

brought forward by abolitionists in favor of the equal- 
ity of negroes with white naen, and in favor of the 
amalgamation of these two races. This argument 
of theirs is founded on the twelfth chapter of Num- 
bers, one of the books of the Decalogue, or the laws 
of Moses. But before we enter upon an investiga- 
tion of that chapter, in relation to the doctrine alleg 
ed by abolitionists, we will merely observe, that they 
are a strange set of logicians, inasmuch as when 
the law of Moses is appealed to as an evidence of the 
legal enslaving of the negro Canaanites, then that 
law is foimd to be antiquated, out of date, and of no 
force ; but when, in the same laiv, there happens to 
be found a passage that seems to make in favor of 
any of the dogmas of abolitionism, lo, it is seized upon 
with avidity, and held to be of the greatest force and 
authority, and by no means antiquated, or inefficient, 
being first rate Scripture. 

The chapter alluded to, reads as follows: "And 
Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses, because of 
the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he 
had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, 
hath the Lord indeed spoken onli/ by Moses? hath 
lie not spoken also by us ? And the Lord heard it. 
* * * And the Lord, spake suddenly unto Moses, and 
unto Aaron, and unto Miriam : come out ye three 
unto the tabernacle of the congregation; and they 
came out. And the Lord came down in the pillar 
of a cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, 
and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came 
forth. And he said, hear now my words: If there 
be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make my- 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 403 

self known unto him in a vision, and will speak to 
him in a dream, my servant Moses is not so, who is 
faithful in all my house. With him will I speak 
nnouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark 
speeches ; and the similitude of the Lord shall he be- 
hold ; wherefore, then, were ye not afraid to speak 
against my servant Moses. And the anger of the 
Lord was kindled against them; and he departed. 
And the cloud departed from oif the tabernacle, and 
behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow ; Aaron 
looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. 
And Aaron said unto Moses, alas ! my Lord, I beseech 
thee, lay not this sin upon us, wherein we have done 
foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. * * * * And 
Moses cried unto the Lord, saying: heal her now, O 
God, I beseech thee. And the Lord said unto Moses, 
if her father had but spit in her face, should she not 
be ashamed seven days, and after that let her be re- 
ceived again ? And Miriam was shut out from the camp 
seven days, and all the people journeyed not till 
Miriam was brought in again." 

On examining this chapter, does it appear on lohat 
account Miriam was made a loathsome leper, and 
driven out of the camp — was it for finding fault with 
her brother Moses, for marrying the black woman, 
or because she had joined with Aaron and others, in 
doubting whether God had indeed spoken only by 
Moses ? It appears that her crime consisted wholly 
of the latter, which was for invading by contentious 
words, the divine dictatorship of Moses, to the exclu- 
sion of all others, over the twelve tribes. 

In her punishment, God said not a word about the 



404 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

woman Moses had married, nor respecting Miriam's 
having found fault with the marriage, but conhned 
his remark wholly to the subject of the mission of 
Moses, as God's mouth to the people, as is seen by re- 
ferring to the sixth, seventh and eighth verses of that 
chapter. There is no doubt, however, but the cir- 
cumstance of her brother's having married one of the 
cursed race, was one of her reasons why he ought 
not to possess alone the dignity of being sole dictator. 
The circumstance, as she seems to have thought, was 
degrading, on which account she found fault with 
him, as reads the first verse of the chapter. 

That the Hebrews were not to marry with the ne- 
groes of Canaan, is evident from Deut. vii, 3, and 
reads as follows: "Neither shalt thou make mar- 
riages with them (the Canaanites) : thy daughter shalt 
thou not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt 
thou not take unto thy son." Here, it is plain that 
the law of Moses forbids amalgamation of the Jew 
blood with that of the negro's; and yet abolitionists 
contend, that God, who was the author of that law, 
struck Miriam with a loathsome disease in token of 
his anger at her, because she found fault with the 
very thing the law found fault with and forbid. 

This view of the matter is sufficient to convince 
any man that the crime of Miriam was not about the 
marriage but the sacred office of Moses only. 

But says one. an abolitionist perhaps, the writer in 
this opinion of his, has got himself into a tangle at 
last, as we cannot see but he is compelled to show up 
Moses as a flagrant sinner against his own law, for 
having married that Ethiopian woman. Not so is 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 405 

our reply, for Moses did that thing some forty years 
before the time the l.aw was given to him from Mount 
Sinai, at a time when he knew no more of the will 
and law of God than any other man, who had been 
born and brought up among the Egyptians. But 
when he received the law, then he became informed 
of the will and designs of God, in that, as well as in 
all other matters. 

As to the fate of the woman he had married in the 
land of Midian, at the time he fled from Egypt for 
killing an Egyptian, see Exo. ii, 12, we learn noth- 
ing from the Scriptures further than that she came 
to the Jewish camp, with Jethro her father, in the 
wilderness. 

Thus it is certainly clear, that the abolition opinion, 
of the equality of negroes with other men, and the 
propriety and righteousness of amalgamation by mar- 
riage with them derives no support from that portion 
of Holy Writ, but receives a rebuke of the most de- 
cided description from the very law itself. 

Respecting this race, we find that God took partic- 
ular care that their blood should not become mingled 
with the line through which the Messiah was to come. 
This is a remarkable fact. To prove this, see Gen. 
xxxviii, the whole chapter, where is related the his- 
tory of Judah's having had three sons by a Canaan- 
itish woman, who, of course, was a negress. Two 
of those sons were slain by the Lord for a certain 
wickedness they did, while the third son, Shelah by 
name, escaped (Gen. xxxviii, 7, 10), but is not reck- 
oned in the line of the holy seed, which was con^ 
linued through another branch of Judah's blood, 



40G ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

namely, by the son of Tamar, a Jewess. Is not this 
fact a proof that the negro blood was not estimated 
to be as good as the blood of Shem, even by tho 
Creator himself, as manifested in that transaction. 
He even preferred the line of the illegitimate son of 
Tamar, by Jiidah, for the line of the Messiah, rather 
than the line of the Canaanitish race. In agreement 
with this rejection of the negro blood, as it related to 
things holy in the Jewish religious economy, it is 
seen, that although the two sons of Moses by his 
Ethiopian wife, whose names were Gershom and 
JEliezar, were reckoned with the tribe of Levi, yet, 
in the service of the temple, they were never allowed 
to officiate in any office above that oi porteis^ scribes, 
or some kind of laborious service. Even the temple, 
and the priesthood of the Jews, had negro slaves, who 
were the whole tribe of the Gibeonites, one of the 
nations of Canaan, appointed to that doom by Joshua, 
chap, ix, 23, as follows: "Now, therefore, ye are 
cursed; and there shall none of you be freed from 
being bo7id?nen, and hewers of wood, and drawers of 
water, for the house of my God." 

This class of slaves, says Adam Clarke, were called 
" Nethinims, or slaves of the temple," and had been 
thus from the days of Joshua till the time of Solomon, 
and from thence to the time of the great Babylonian 
captivity, when it is likely, says Clarke, they remained 
among the Chaldeans, as, by going back to Judea, 
they could gain nothing but their old condition of 
bondmen. 

Now from the time of Joshua till that captivity, 
was over eight hundred years, during which time it 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 407 

is not hard to conjecture, that many millions came 
of the race, all of whom were born slaves, for Joshua 
had said that none of them should ever be freed from 
a state of slavery, as is seen in the above quoted 
Scripture. From this fact we discover, also, that the 
jubilees did the negro Canaanite slave no good, as 
is contended by abolitionists, as they were 7iever to 
be made free. If, then, the negro slaves of the tem- 
ple could not be freed by the jubilees, how much 
less, therefore, the more common slaves among the 
people. 

But says one, hoio is this? you assert, that the 
blood of the progenitors of Jesus Christ, was never, 
through that long vista of time, from Noah till his 
advent, contaminated, or mixed with negro blood — 
and yet Rahab, a Canaanitish woman, was one of 
his ancestors, according to St. Matthew, chapter i, 
verse 5. In that chapter you will find that Solomon 
the father of Booz, who was the father of Obed, who 
was the father of Jesse, and the father of King- David, 
married this said Rahab of the town of Jericho, a 
Canaanitish city. Now sir, continues the objactor, 
as that woman was a Canaanite, she was, according 
to your theory a negress, of the very race of Ham, 
and, consequently, her blood was mixed in the lineal 
descent of our Lord. 

To this severe criticism, we reply as follows, and 
assert, that although Rahab was a citizen of the town 
or city of Jericho in the land of Canaan, yet was 
she not a negress, nor at all descended of the race of 
Ham, nor was she a Canaanitess by blood or race. 

But how is this made out? we will show you: see 



408 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

book of Deuteronomy, chapter vii, verse 3, and on- 
ward, as well as the book of Joshua, chapter xxiii, 
12, 13, where it was strictly forbidden, under the dis- 
pleasure of Jehovah himself, to every individual of 
the twelve tribes of the Jews to marry with any 
of the Canaanitish race, which consisted of seven 
mighty nations, all of whom are set forth by name 
in this same seventh chapter of Deuteronomy. 

Now, if Rahah had been of that race, and belonged 
by blood to any of those sev^n nations, Solomon, 
would not, as a jwince of the tribe o^ Judah, have been 
allowed to have had this woman for a wife. Rahab, 
therefore, was of the blood of iShem, and but a citizen 
of the country, as a7i inhabitant only — while by race, 
she possessed no consanguinity to the blood of Ham. 

)Solo7no7i, as a prince of the regal line of Judah, of 
which tribe came our Lord, could not have violated 
the law of Moses, in so flagrant and horrid a manner, 
as to have married a black woman, a Canaanitess; 
and thus to have provoked the vengeance of the God 
of Abraham, which is everywhere threatened, as often 
as the subject is alluded to in all the books of the 
law. Thus, we defend, as we believe, our opinion, 
which asserts that the blood of the negro race did 
not at all mix with the lineal blood of the Savior of 
Mankind. 

Now, as we find this grand interdiction, respecting 
Jewish intermarriages with any and all the seven 
negro nations of Canaan — we may with the utmost 
propriety, believe in addition, that the interdiction 
extended to the ichole race, settled in other countries, 
beside old Canaan, as it would have been equally 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 

deleterious and corrupting to the sacred descent of 
Jesus Christ, to have been connected with the blood 
of negroes out of Canaan, as iviihui that country. 

But in the whole book of God, there is no command 
either direct or implied, against Jewish marriages, 
whether before or after the giving of the law of 
Moses, with the race of Jcqiheth, the progenitor of 
the white race of mankind. And although Jesus 
Christ is the proffered Savior of all the human race, 
blacks and all, yet was it abhorrent to God, as we 
believe, that the immaculate blood of his Son, which 
was to be offered as an atonement^ should be con- 
taminated by that of negro extraction. 

It is a remarkable fact, which, in connection with 
the above, cannot fail to make due impression on the 
reader's mind, that persons who had jlat noses could 
not be a priest of the sanctuary of the Mosaic wor- 
ship; see Leviticus xxi, 18. This regulation was, 
doubtless, to guard the blood of the priesthood from 
any contamination of the race of Ham, as a prominent 
feature of that people, is a Jlat nuse. There was 
never a king nor prophet of the Jeios who had negro 
blood in his veins; and yet there were multitudes of ? 

the Jews, as well as the Israelites, who were thus 
tinctured by unlawful connections with the Cana- 
anites, which was against the law of Moses, as well 
as the law of nature. 

It is a singular fact, that all the first labors of the 
apostles, after the resurrection of Christ, were directed 
northward from Jerusalem, among the whites, and 
not southward in Africa. To the north, in Italy, was 
the place of the throne of the Roman empire; to the 
18 



4 10 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



north lay all the Grecian tribes, among whom Paul 
and his associates went preaching the Gospel. Is 
not this a proof of the superiority of the white blood 
above that of the African ? or these first missionaries 
would not have thus chosen that race as the conserv- 
ators of the new system of divinity, given to the 
world by Jesus Christ. 

In accordance with this view, we notice that the 
Holy Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testaments, 
were given to the protection of the white race, and by 
them have been preserved and handed down to the 
present time. The INew Testament, in particular, 
has been preserved by the white race after the age 
of the apostles, as the Jews deride that part of the 
Scriptures as false, and the African had nothing to 
do with its original preservation or compilation. 

Abolitionists say that neo;io slavery is a curse upon 
earth, and that the curse of God is on the country and 
families wherever the thing is practiced ; and yet we 
find in the Scriptures, Gen. ix, that when God, by 
the mouth of Noah, blessed Shem and Japheth, he 
gave them as one item in their blessings, a 7'ight to 
make servants of the race of Ham. It was the same 
with the Hebrews many hundred years after under 
the reign of Moses, as a law giver, when God prom- 
ised his blessings upon them as a people, upon con- 
dition of their obedience, making one item of those 
blessings to be the privilege of enslaving the Cana- 
anites. 

If to hold slaves is a curse to any man <Dr country, 
as abolitionists says it is, then principles must have 
strangely changed in the administration of God's 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 



411 



Providence since the days of Abraham; for to him 
the possession of bond men and bond maids was one 
item in the great amount of the mercies and blessings 
of God to that patriarch, in whose seed all the fami- 
lies of the earth were to be blessed. See Gen. xxiv, 
35, as follows : "And the Lord hath blessed my mas- 
ter (Abraham) greatly, and he is become great, and 
hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, 
and man servants and maid servants^ and camels 
and asses." 

But Abraham did riglif by his slaves, of whom he 
owned vast numbers ; on which account the blessing 
of having bondmen was not changed to a curse, as 
are all the mercies of God when abused by the wick- 
ed. How, therefore, is it true, as abolitionist say, that 
the enslaving of the race originated in the foulest 
wickedness? It is not true, never was and never 
will be, except in the abuse of the institution. 

With the origin of slavery, the present existing 
slaveholding population of the United States, had 
nothing to do — therefore, for that they arc not to be 
held accountable. They did not bring the blacks 
from their native land, either by purchase or as pris- 
oners of war. They came into existence with them 
in their possession, the same as their landed estates 
and every other species of property which they inher- 
ited from their fathers, and are, therefore, under the 
Divine supervision, morally and politically bound to 
protect and shield them from all physical suffering, 
the same as they are bound to protect and shield their 
children, apprentices, or other dependants. In this, 
the kind Providence of that all-wise Being, who rules 



412 ORIGIN, CHAKACTER, AND 

among the inhabitants of the earth, is benevolently 
displayed toward the descendants of Ham in North 
America. The experience of the blacks themselves, 
and the observation of all others, prove this to be their 
most happy contiition ; for, with but few exceptions, 
all those who have gone out from this protection, are 
found among the most miserable of the human fam- 
ily. All experience proves that were the principles 
of abolitionism carried out ])racticalli/, the slaves 
would be placed in an infinitely worse condition, both 
morally and physically, than that in which we now 
find them. 

But, says the objector, this is the white man's fault, 
for if the negro man and woman were but received 
into society upon an equal footing, with the whiteSj 
they would become their equals. This is granted, 
they would indeed become the equal of the while 
man. But how? not by the elevation, morally, men- 
tally and physically, of the black man, but of the com- 
plete degradation of the white man. as the God wlio 
created both races has decreed, and as is manifest 
from the differ-ence, the radical dijferetice, there is be- 
tween them, proving that their amalgamation cannot 
be effected, but by a loathsome deterioration of the 
superior race. This the experience of all time abun- 
dantly demonstrates, as well as that amalgainatioii 
is the inevitable result of political equality of the 
races. 

Look, for example, at the population of the Mex- 
ican states. Not only is it characterized by pJiysical 
weakness, but by 7?ioral and mental inferiority of a 
most frightful description. And how is this to be 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 413 

accounted for ? From the fact that there has been a 
mixture of Mexican and negro blood for ages. God 
forbid, therefore, that we as a people, should seek to 
elevate this race by so great a sacrifice, by so horrible 
a violation and prostration of the sacred laws of the 
Creator of the Universe. In all this we do not dis- 
parage the black man, but only set forth the actual 
difference there is between the races, neither of which 
are to be praised or censured respecting the attri- 
butes of their respective natures. These were wisely 
ordained by that Being v/ho created all things, by 
the counsel of his own will, and the wisdom of 
whose appointments man has not the right to ques- 
tion. 

There is another evidence, that the habitations of 
(his race (the blacks) are of Divine appointment, and 
that is, that they are suited in their formation and 
physical constitution, to a torrid region. As the 
torrid region of North America is, therefore, best 
suited to their comfort and happiness, we conclude it 
is their natural home. And, as this country, through 
(he providence of God, has been put into the power 
and ownership of the iclnte race, and as the two races 
cannot exist together in a state of political equality, 
it follows that if the negro race exist in the South at 
all, as a people, it must be in a condition oi surveil- 
lance or subordination of some sort or other. 

The negro man has as good a right to exist as has 
the white man: but he has not as good a right to rule 
or give laws to society. Tliis is evident from the 
black man's mental inferiority, and consequent ifia- 
bility to discharge those high functions, as the history 



414 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

of the past and the observation of the present, abund- 
antly prove. 

This being true, we find that his place on the earth 
IS that of serveillance of some description or other ; 
and as the hand that formed them is good and munifi 
cent in his provisions and appointments for the com* 
fort and support of all his creatures, we are irresistibly 
led to the conclusion, that a condition of this char- 
acter is the most conducive to the well being and 
happiness of the negro race. 

But, says one, that one human being should become, 
under any circumstances whatever, the property of 
another human being, is abhorrent to all the concep- 
tions of the himian mind relative to what is right or 
wrong. On this subject, we may argue thus, and 
not become obnoxious to the charge of sophistry^ as 
we fondly hope. It is the labor which a serving man 
or woman can perform, that makes them at all valu- 
able in the affairs of men. When a slave is trans- 
ferred from one possessor to another, the labor which 
said slave may reasonably be considered capable of 
performing, is the consideraiion oi value that is taicen 
into the account, and not the mere body of the serv- 
ant. How differs then a transaction of this kind 
from those which are of daily occurrence in every 
civilized community, viz : the hiring of one individual 
to another to labor a specified time for a stipulated 
amount? The ditference consists alone in the terms, 
not in the nature, of the transaction ; for, in either case, 
it is the labor of the individual that constitutes the 
thing of value. In the one case, the hireling receives 
for his services a stipulated sum of money ; in the 



FORTUNES. OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



415 



other, the slave has secured to him, by the laws of 
the land, the necessaries and comforts of life, con- 
sisting of food, raiment, protection, &c. (Give them 
their liberty, emancipate them and place them upon 
their own resources, and all experience proves that 
not one in ten is capable of providing themselves and 
their families with the necessaries of life.) In either 
case the laboring faculty cannot be separated from 
the body of the laborer ; therefore, it becomes neces- 
sary that the person of the servant should be present 
where the labor is required to be performed. 

But, continues the objector, suppose it does not suit 
the serving man to go where the labor is required to 
be performed, is he to be forced to go against his 
will? To this we answer, that his is a necessitotis 
condition, and that in yielding to the laws of impe- 
rious necessity, he is doing nothing more, is making 
no greater sacrifices, than is a large majority of the 
whole human family compelled, by the same laws of 
necessity, to make, whether they will to do it or not. 
All are more or l^ss governed by overruling circum- 
stances, and although there may be and there is a 
great variety of necessities accompanying the various 
conditions of human life, yet are they equally as 
imperious and often more severe and uncompromising, 
than are the commands of the master of a slave. 

Indeed, it is a fact that cannot be denied, that the 
average condition of the slave population of the Uni- 
ted States, is superior to that, not alone of the manu- 
facturing population of Great Britain and the great 
masses of European nations generally, and of Mexico, 
but of a very numerous class of the free white popu- 



416 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

latioii of the free States of North America. If then, 
the philanthropic (?) votaries of abolitionism desire a 
field in which to exercise their feelings of charity 
and benevolence, they have it in their own midst, 
without hazarding any changes of climate or opposi- 
tion of conflicting interests. Charity is a Christian 
virtue, a heavenly principle, and one which we wish 
to see practiced to the utmost ability of every member 
of the human family ; but, under the guidance of 
modern abolitionists, it reminds us of him who could 
discern a mote in his brother's eye, without ever hav- 
ing discovered the hemn in his own. We hope our 
neighbors of this class, will cast a glance around 
them, before they attempt to scan the sunny regions 
of the South. 

Mexico, we are told, is a free country ; " the hateful 
stigma of slavery attaches not to that delectable re- 
gion of the earth." But this is a mistake: a system 
of slavery and beggarly oppression, of the most re- 
volting character, has existed in that country from 5 
time immemorial. All that class of citizens who are ) 
not landholders, are compelled to labor for their daily 
subsistence. The wages which they receive for their 
services, are so small that they are forced from 7ieces- 
sity to go in debt for the comforts of life. Not being 
able to liquidate those debts according to agreement, 
they are, in accordance with the laws of the country, 
sold to work until their debts are paid. But, as their 
wants always exceed their wages, their servitude be- 
comes perpetual, and they are transferred from one 
to another, without regard to their feelings or happi- 
ness. Thus, is the great mass of the Mexican people 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



417 



in a state of miserable servitude infinitely more deplor- 
able than that wliich exists in the United States. 
ISO one cares for the wants of the poor Mexican slave. 
Food, clothing, medicines, are not provided by {Iw 
master ; for, should this be done, it would still enhance 
the amount of indebtedness, and thus rivet still more 
securely the manacles of his bondage — placing the 
goal of liberty still further in the distance. Hence 
is it that this class of the citizens of Mexico are sunk 
down into a state of hopeless misery, though of the 
same blood and race of their masters. 

But we rejoice to know that such is not the con- 
dition of the negro slaves of the United States. Here 
the well being of the slave is a matter of deep interest 
to the master. Like the venerable Patriarchs of olden 
time, they delight to administer to the wants and 
happiness of those whom God has committed to their 
hands. If the slave is sick, a physician administers 
to his wants ; if hungry or naked, he has but to look 
to his master who provides what is necessary with- 
out any care on the part of the slave. No constable 
or sheriff dogs his steps, for he is out of debt and free 
from all responsibility, save that of good and honest 
behavior. The aflairs of government disturb not his 
mind, and if war invaue i'ug uind, he is not called to 
the field of carnage. 

But the case is far different with the Mexican slave. 
Contrary to his will he is pressed into the service and 
forced to fight the battles of his country, though he 
own not a foot of soil, nor never can. Surely then, 
the condition of the slaves of our Southern States, is 
far superior to that of the people of Mexico. 



4.18 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

But terrible as is the condition of that people, in 
their state of worse than Russian serfis?n, the tender 
hearted and sympathetic abolitionists are, by their 
short sighted policy, urging forward the entire black 
population of the South to an equally miserable con 
dition. By their policy, the present protective system 
of slavery would be dissolved, and the whole slave 
population in the United States emancipated in our 
midst and thrown upon their own resources for sub- 
sistence. What would be the consequence? A state 
of degradation and misery, similar to that which now 
exists in Mexico, must inevitably follow. For land- 
holders, to any extent, they can never become, and, 
without this, how are they to be saved from certain 
misery? Says our objector, this is easily shown — 
they can hire out and by their wages sustain them- 
selves and their families, as do other poor men of the 
land. But this is a conclusion which practical expe- 
rience does not sustain. The immense number of 
the slave population (amounting to nearly four mil- 
lion and rapidly increasing) would of necessity pre- 
vent it. Were this vast host to be made dependent 
upon their daily wages for a support, it would fail 
them. They could not compete with the white 
laborers that would immediately flood the States 
which they now inhabit. The consequence would 
be, that they would be again cast upon the mercy of 
the whites, who do now, and always will, compose the 
landholders of the country. In this condition of 
things, in order to prevent an unbounded increase of 
pauperism throughout the entire United States, which 
in time would certainly ensue, " ragrant laws" would 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 419 

have to be enacted, by which they would be curtail- 
ed in their liberty of wandering from place to place, 
and thus become in all propability as wretched as the 
miserable serfs of Mexico. A condition, as wc have 
shown, far more distressing than the present system 
of slavery can ever bring upon them. 

There exists but one hope of escape from a fate so 
dreadful, and death is that hope; for it is well known 
that in all the free states, the blacks have decreased 
rapidly in numbers. In the state of New York, where 
they have been free only since 1828, they have de- 
creased in population more than one-half This is, 
doubtless, occasioned by their extreme poverty, and 
imprudence toward their infants, which, for want of 
care, as respects a covering from the elements, suita 
ble food and clothing, and medical attendance, die in 
great numbers. This last is not a matter of surprise 
to us at all, as it is but a natural characteristic of the 
race. 

The principles of abolitionism are alike subversive 
of the well-being and happiness of both races. In- 
deed, not a movement has this political faction ever 
made, that did not tend to increase the degradation 
and misery of the negro race. In the state of Ken- 
tucky, the removal of slavery has, doubtless, been re- 
tarded, by their influence, not less than ten or twenty 
years. Besides, the actual condition of the slaves has 
been made worse by the unhallowed excitement and 
indignation which it has engendered on the part of 
the masters, who, becoming naturally enraged at be- 
ing thus unceremoniously molested in their social and 
domestic affairs, have been forced to deprive their serv- 



420 



ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 



ants of those liberties which they were wont to ex- 
tend unto them, lest they should be decoyed away 
by those unprincipled wretches, who have shown 
themselves alike the enemies of both master and slave. 
It has also prevented, in a multitude of instances, mas- 
ters from learning their slaves to read — a blessing 
which many a Christian master would gladly have 
extended to his slaves, had he not been thus pre- 
vented. 

To the slaves we would say, regard not the aboli- 
tionist as your friend, for such he is far from being. 
The best friend you have on earth is a kind master 
or mistress, whom you can all secure by faithfully 
doing your duty. Serve them faithfully, be content 
with your lot, and give no heed to those who would 
take you from your homes, and God will reward you 
for it. 

We once supposed that the principle upon which 
the abolitionists acted in the matter of negro emanci- 
pation, was a good and virtuous principle ; but long 
have we had reason to think otherwise. The lead- 
ers of this unhallowed faction are bold to assert, that 
to better the condition of the black man is not their 
object. To free the soil of what they term the odium 
of slavery, is the end and aim of all their operations ; 
and whether this improve or injure the condition of 
the black man, is a matter about which they care not. 
Clear the soil of the stain of slavery, is the cry, no 
matter how great the cost, or how vast the sacrifice. 
If a division of the union of the states, or civil war, 
be the result, let it come, we heed it not. Thus are 
we forced to believe, that, of all the factions and evil 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 421 

influences which conspire to undermine and subvert 
the grand superstructure of American Liberty, that 
termed Modern Abohtionism is the most dangerous 
and fearful. 

That there are many honest-hearted men in the 
party, who are actuated by pure sympathy for the 
slave, in what they have been erroneously taught to 
believe is the unhappy and oppressed condition in 
which he is placed, we freely admit. But these peo- 
ple are deceived; they have allowed themselves to 
be duped and imposed upon by corrupt and unprin- 
cipled demagogues, who are prompted, by no other 
than a desire to build up their own fame and for- 
tunes upon the ruins of those of the honorable and 
unsuspecting of our land. That they are deceived, 
is proven from the fact that nine-tenths of those who 
travel through the southern states, and see the slave 
contented and happy in the enjoyment of that liberty 
and those blessings which a humane and Christian 
master delights to provide for those intrusted to his 
care, return, fully convinced that the servant is the 
happier of the two, and that to change their relations 
might be a benefit to the master, but not to the slave. 
Had the masses of the abolition party the opportuni- 
ty of making these observations personally, we hon- 
estly believe that the universal conclusion of all the 
good and virtuous would be the same. The average 
condition of the free blacks of the North, will not 
bear a comparison with that of the slaves of the 
South. Were we to advocate the removal of slavery 
at all, we should be actuated rather out of sympathy 
for the master than the slave. 



422 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

That there are evils growing out of the institution 
of slavery, we do not deny ; and that it is liable to 
abuses, as is every other institution of Divine appoint- 
ment, we are free to admit. We go further, we ad- 
mit that it is a moral and political evil of vast mag- 
nitude, as is proven by the low state of public mor- 
als in the South, and by a comparison of the slave 
states with the free, in general improvement and 
prosperity. But, as the history of its every move- 
ment, from the period it was first ushered into life in 
the British House of Lords, to the present time, abun- 
dantly testifies, abolitionism is inadequate to the task 
of its removal ; nay, as we have shown, all its ope- 
rations only tend to rivet more securely the manacles 
of the slave, and perpetuate the institution of slavery. 
How unreasonable, how contrary to the dictates of 
common sense and strict propriety, that its advocates 
should continue to urge its claims upon the people of 
the United States. 

In view of all this, and of the fact that it is a thing 
of British origin, of lordly birth, nursed in the cradle 
of despotism, and fed by the hand of royal aristocra- 
cy — as has been every opposing principle and plot 
against American republicanism — we cannot but re- 
gard the leaders, at least, of this unhallowed faction — 
this dissevering principle of strife and contention — as 
the worst enemies of our country; nay, as traitors 
to the government, whose very existence is hazard- 
ous to the well-being and prosperity of the nation. 
The time is not far distant, we trust, when they will 
be led to see the error of their ways, and to turn from 
their folly. When this is done, and this unhallowed 



FORTUNES, OP THE NEGRO RACE. 423 

and unnatural war upon southern interests and in* 
stitutions shall cease, we believe that the natural 
goodness of heart, the wisdom, philanthropy and 
Christianity of the people of the slave states, will 
lead them either to devise a plan for the complete re- 
moval of slavery, in liarmony with the interests and 
feelings of both master and slave, or so ameliorate 
the physical, moral and intellectual condition of the 
slaves, that their separation from their masters would, 
like that of Hagar from Abraham, partake more of 
cruelty and persecution, than of kindness and Chris- 
tian charity. 

Many are bold to affirm, that they would rather 
dissever the Union than fail in their warfare against 
slavery. But were this to be accomplished (an event 
which we pray the Lord may never happen), slavery, 
if affected at all by it, would but be perpetuated. The 
condition of the slave, if changed at all thereby, 
would be for the worse. The North would open her 
arms with still greater boldness to those who could 
malie their escape from their masters, and the result 
would be, a curtailing of the usual liberties of the 
slave and the adoption of a system of servitude far 
more rigid and severe. This the operations of that 
party have already effected to a very considerable ex- 
tent, and as they increase in numbers and in the 
boldness of their attacks, will continue to effect, to an 
extent that will cause the slave to curse the day that 
gave birth to abolitionism. 

Having now, as we believ-e, given a true history 
of tlie origin of the negro race — of his character, mor- 
ally and physically — the nature of Noah's curse — its 



424 ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND 

indorsement by Moses in the law — the fortunes of the 
lace in past ages, as well as in the present times-— 
we desist from further remarks, having done what 
we can toward allaying the conflict now raging be- 
tween the slavery and anti-slavery classes of the 
great public ; believing that good men, whose con- 
sciences have been formed by reading the Scriptures 
on this subject, will honor the source of their educa- 
tion, by soothing, all in their power, the unhappy fer- 
ment, and thus, if possible, prevent the separation of 
the states, and a horrible civil war in America, whicb, 
were it to happen, would be the joy of all the mon- 
archies of Europe, and their friends in the United 
States. 

But, in closing this work, we ought not, perhaps, 
10 hide it, that the feelings, the sympathies, the edu- 
cation and preconceived principles of the writer, have 
once been all at war with the facts brought from the 
Bible on the subject of negro slavery. But now we 
feel the amazing importance of bowing these preju- 
dices to the word of God, submitting, with all lowli 
ness of mind, this mysterious matter to a higher ad- 
judication than is to be found among men, in which 
frame of spirit we must remain, till a stronger light 
than hitherto has shone on the mind of the author, 
shall irradiate his understanding in relation to the 
principles advanced in this book, respecting the for- 
tunes of the race of Ham. 

We desire it to be understood, that in all we have 
said in this work, wc have bad an eye to truth, so 
farasvrc could ascertain it, and that we have not 
written a word from prejudice against the people of 



FORTUNES, OF THE NEGRO RACE. 



425 



the blacks ; having exhibited them as we have found 
Ihem, for which we feel no manner of accountability, 
as the difference, in all respects, between the negro 
and the white race, as to the physical and mental 
l>eing, is of God, the Creator. 

Here ends our labor, whether good or bad, 

Of which our pen assures that she is glad; 

And if light is shed on the misty space 

Of ancient times, and the dark negro race, 

Then we rejoice; but if not, then we mourn, 

And know not where for truth our face should turn. 

But, as a vessel sent the winds to brave. 

We launch this book upon the public wave, 

Where rocks and shoals may cross its dubious way, 

And dash its sides and sails amid the spray. 

And yet this may not be its final fate, 

Though many who may read, may also hate — 

Yet tome, perhaps, may love, of thinking men, 

And justify the author and his pen. 

Should this be so, which hope our thoughts inspire^ 

A better goal than this we can't desire. 

18* 



STRICTURES ON ABOLITIONISM. 

NATIONAL COLONIZATION OF THE FREE BLACK 

POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 

ADVOCATED. 



BY THE PUBLISHER. 



The present has very significantly been styled, 
" The Golden Age " of the world. Compared with 
all the ages which compose the measure of the past, 
there is none to equal it. It is a towering eminence, 
from whose summit the eye may survey the broad 
expanse of the world's history ; age preceding age, 
as wave follows wave, with here and there a bright 
spot, like the green oasis in the wide extended 
desert. 

No frowning despot now sits upon the throne of 
universal empire, to mark out the channels of human 
thought, or set bounds to the development of civilization, 
of science, and of art. Free as the proud bird of 
liberty, when released from the bloody fangs of the 
British lion, and permitted to soar aloft, and bathe 
his golden plumage in the burning radiance of the 



438 STRICTTJIIES 

mid-day sun, the empire of mind, the spirit of inves- 
tigation and research, and the genius of invention 
and improvement, are enabled to gi'apple successfullj 
with the powers of ignorance, vice, and superstition, 
which have ever bound man ta earth, and ground him 
in the dust, and to develop countless ways and means 
for his elevation and improvement. 

Our country, too ; what a prodigy among the nations 
of the earth ! What a monument to the giant powers 
of the human mind and Christian enterprise, when 
uncontrolled by regal authority or papal influence. 
Like first creation, a new world has been ushered 
from the dark chaos of heathenism, into the bright 
sunshine of Christian civilization, as it were, in the 
short period of a day. The magic wand of science 
and Christianity is waived over the great wilderness, 
and it is suddenly transformed into a fruitful field or 
a populous city. The dark and boundless forest, which 
but yesterday re-echoed the deafening roar of the wild 
beast, or the piercing yell of the warrior savage, has 
disappeared, and cultivated fields, thriving villages, and 
populous cities, resounding with the busy hum of 
industry, the classic melody of literature, and the 
richer notes of Christian worship, supply its place. 
Those vast inland seas and deep rolling rivers, which 
were wont to sport upon their heaving bosoms the 
frail canoe of the wild Indian, now teem with the 
commerce of a mighty nation. Where ran the narrow 
trail of the wild buffalo, and the wilder savage, now 
extends the great iron-bound thoroughfares, where 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 439 

speeds the noisy locomotive, the triumphal car of 
modern improvement, the iron horse with his bowels 
of fire, carrying in his wake, with the velocity of 
the winged messengers, a multitude sufficient to con- 
stitute the world's convention, or a congress of nations. 
By its side, too, may be seen the sohtary line of the 
magnetic telegraph, upon which the lightnings of 
heaven yield allegiance to the mighty prowess of 
cultivated reason, and become the willing servants 
of man — the common carriers of human thought. 

But not alone in this wonderful triumph of civilized 
over savage life, of Christianity over barbarism, of 
the arts over the undisturbed repose of uncultivated 
nature, are the superiority, the true greatness, the 
matchless prowess of our nation exhibited. It is in 
a moral point of view that our national superiority 
stands forth prominent — in the great work of civilizing 
and Christianizing mankind — of giving to the world 
a form of civil government nearer perfect than any 
that had preceded it — of exhibiting a practical solution 
of the great question : Is man capable of self-govern- 
ment ? In all these great works of moral reformation 
and scientific research — these majestic schemes and 
systems for enlightening and ennobling the human 
mind, and elevating the standard of human happiness, 
which characterize the golden age in which we five — 
it is a cheering thought, a proud reflection, that 
they are generally the ofispring of American genius 
and enterprise, and sustained by American benevolence 
and philanthropy. 



440 



STRICTURES 



The watch-word of this generation is — Onward ! 
Every political revolution, and every domestic enter- 
prise, has an upward and redeeming tendency. This 
is true, not only in a civil and secular, but in a moral 
point of view. The darkness of heathenism and savage 
life, is rapidly receding before the glorious sunlight 
of civilization and Christianity. The glorious sun of 
repubUcan liberty, which, upon the natal day of 
American Independence, first dawned upon the world, 
is beginning to extend its life-giving, regenerating 
influences over the moral pohtical wastes of despotic 
Europe. Kings are beginning to tremble for the 
safety of their respective thrones, and their subjects 
to look forward to the no very distant period, when 
despotism, with its haggard train of moral, social, and 
political evils, shall give place to republican liberty ; 
and constitutions, modelled after the '■'• 3Iagna Charta^^ 
of American Independence, shall become the organic 
law of the several states, kingdoms, and empires of 
the old world. The numerous plans which have been 
devised, and are being carried into operation, for the 
purpose of extending and sustaining the various systems 
of civilizing and Christianizing the nations of the 
earth, speak much for the wisdom and philanthropy 
of their authors, and are truly worthy the countenance 
and support of every friend of humanity. 

But in the present, as in all past ages, we find the 
human mind more or less prone to run to extremes. 
Like the resistless torrent of the mountain stream, 
which being accelerated by its own momentum, bursts 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 441 

over its natural barriers, and counteracts many of its 
naturally good effects by its destruction of surrounding 
objects. Thus is it with the philanthropy of many of 
the present age. They have a zeal without knowledge. 
Prompted by the impulse of feehng, without the 
exercise of reason, they often resort to means which 
are altogether incompatible with the ends which they 
desire to accompUsh. We find, therefore, among the 
many systems of reformation which have been devised 
in this our day and generation, many to admire and 
sanction ; others, again, which we cannot consistently 
give assent to, because we conceive them not to be 
in harmony with reason, truth, and justice. 

And first among these, is that species of philanthropy 
or fanaticism wliich would take from a man that which, 
of right, belongs to him, and appropriate it to other 
purposes, without remunerating him therefor, gaining 
his consent, or even consulting his wishes. It is to 
be presumed, that there are but few of the enlightened 
citizens of our common country, who, if they fully 
comprehended its ultimate tendency, would subscribe 
to a species of fanaticism of this nature. Yet do we 
find a considerable party in the United States, one 
that is not wanting either in respect of numbers or of 
talent, that is organized upon this very principle. In 
all probability, the ground upon which it is based, 
and the prmciples involved in its organization, are 
not fully comprehended by many, perhaps the larger 
number of those who have identified themselves with 
this party ; but we have reason to believe that this is 



442 STRICTIIRES 

not the case with the leaders, the prime movers, the 
pampered stipendiaries who direct its movements, and 
give tone and currency to the practical operations of 
its hidden machinery. Many there may be, who have 
never reflected upon the matter, who have never taken 
the second sober thought concerning it, but have been 
prompted by an impulse engendered by excitement. 
But that this is the case with all, we are slow to 
believe. For the ignorant and deluded, there may bo 
some shadow of excuse or palliation ; but upon the 
wilful perpetrators of error and delusion — the origina- 
tors of this suicidal policy — the leaders of this hetero- 
geneous horde of ranting factionists and unprincipled 
enthusiasts, we forbear to pass judgment. Disturbers 
of the public peace, and engenderers of private feuds, 
the baseness of their designs is equalled only by the 
unreasonableness and inconsistency of their tenets, or 
principles of action. 

Such is modern abolitionism and its advocates, a 
withering bhghting curse, a pestiferous excresence upon 
the body politic, a hideous deformity, begotten by the 
father of hes, born of the mother of harlots, and nursed 
by the bloody hand of vile misanthropy ; its breath ia 
pestilence and death, its practical operations the 
destruction of all domestic tranquilhty and social 
order, of all peace, friendship, and good will amongst 
men. 

The inquiry, whence originated such a species of 
pseudo philanthropy or wild fanaticism, may not be 
devoid of interest, as something of its nature may be 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



443 



inferred from its parentage. By investigation, ^e find 
it to be of foreign origin, an imported article. It 
was conceived and brought forth in the British House 
of Lords. But why transplanted ? Simply for the 
reason, that it was the interest of the manufacturers 
to find a market abroad for it. 

America, and her republican institutions ; her even 
onward and upward march to greatness and glory ; 
have ever been objects of jealousy and hatred to 
tyrants and their fawning votaries. Various and 
powerful were their schemes which they, in their 
matchless subtlety and sacrilegious impiety, devised 
and set on foot for the subversion of the grand super- 
structure of American Liberty. But when foiled and 
defeated on every hand, when despair was about to 
possess every soul, the great enemy of human happiness 
presents a new device, for the consideration of British 
lords, his willing subjects. A system of nominal 
slavery is discovered to exist in the United States. 
Horrible inconsistency ! Disgraceful outrage ! What ! 
Slavery exist under a republican government ! It 
must not be. The sympathies of the most corrupt 
and oppressive legislative body that ever disgraced 
the foot-stool of Deity, are aroused for the first time 
in their history. Tears of mock sympathy are seen 
coursing the bloated features of pampered tyrants, 
and proud aristocrats. The excitement increases, 
descends to the masses. Venerable matrons catch the 
theme, look abroad over millions of their oppressed 
fellow subjects, who never enjoyed the luxury of a 



444 



STllICTURES 



comfortable meal in all their lives, and discover that 
to longer pollute their morning beverage with a product 
of slave labor, is criminal. 

And thus argues Parliament : — It is true, slavery 
exists in our own "West Indies. But as these slaves 
are mostly the property of this honorable (?) body, 
we will appropriate an amount (X21,000,000 or 
$105,000,000) from the national treasury, sufficient 
to indemnify us against loss, adopt a seven years' 
apprenticeship system of emancipation, and then shall 
we be prepared to wage endless war against American 
slavery and American institutions. The unhallowed 
proposition receives the unqualified approbation of these 
time-serving votaries of tyranny and corruption. West 
India slavery is abolished upon the plan proposed.* 



* For the success of this experiment, see the following extracts, to 
which volumes of a similar character might be added : — 

"A recent letter from Jamaica slates that the poverty and industrial 
prostration of that island arc almost incredible. It says that since 1S32> 
out of six hundred and fifty sugar estates then in cultivation, more 
than one hundred and fifty have been abandoned and the works broken 
up. This has thrown oat of cultivation over 200,000 acres of rich land, 
which, in 1832, gave emplopnent to about 30,000 laborers, and yielded 
over 1.5,000 hogshead of sugar, and 6,000 puncheons of rum. 

" Dui'ing the same period, over five hundred coffee plantations have 
been abandoned and their works broken np. This threw out of cultiva- 
tion over 200,000 acres more of land, which, in 1S32, required the labor 
of over 30,000 men." 

" Hayti — Marriage Relations, — The Mouiteur Haytlen gives an 
official statement of the births and deaths, marriages and divorces, during 
the first quarter of the present year, in the West, North, and South 
Provinces — seventy towns in all. In these towns the whole number of 
children born in three mouths was 1863, of whom, 1700 were born out of 
wedlock, and only 163 were legitimate ! Such a monstrous disproportion 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 445 

And now commences the crusade against the institution 
as it exists in the United States of America. A motlej 
corps of harping demagogues, tourists, intriguers, 
seducers, pamphleteers, and electioneerers, are com- 
missioned to canvass the free States of the North, 
for the purpose of arraying the North against the 
South in hostile mood, by arousing the prejudices and 
firing the passions of their peaceful inhabitants, by 
agitating the question of the unqualified abolition of 
slavery. 

But why all this upon the part of the erudite, and 
accomplished statesmen of the parent land ? Are 
there no objects of charity upon which to pour 
out their overflowing benevolence and philanthropy at 
home ? Let the countless millions of woe-begotten 
groaning, British subjects throughout England, Ireland,* 



between these two classes of children exists in no other country, we 
venture to say, on the face of the earth, where the man-iage institution is 
recognized. In ihe same towns the deaths in that period were 406 ; 65 
marriages, and 1 divorce. In Port au Prince alone, the capital of the 
Empire, there were 413 children born, and onJy 29 of them in marriage, 
77 deaths and 20 marriages." 

* " Coleman, in his work entitled 'Life and Manners in England and 
France,' gives the following most lamentable description of the poor in 
Ireland: — 'I never saw a more beautiful countrj',' says he, ' though art 
has done little for it. The wretchedness of the great mass of the 
people is utterly beyond all description. I have been into cabins dug 
out of the bog, with no warmth but the heat of the mud in which tliey 
have been excavated, with the roof covered with turf and straw, and 
the water standing in puddles on the outside, without chimney, window, 
door, floor, bed, chair, table, knife, or fork ; the whole furniture consisting 
of some straw to lie down upon, a pot to boil the potatoes, a tin cup to 
drink out of, and a wicker basket to take up the potatoes in after they 



446 



STRICTURES 



and, indeed, the whole wide-extended dominion of 
the Sea-born Empire, upon whose limitless bounds 
the sun never sets, give the answer. Was it a 
pure spirit of charity and benevolence, that prompted 
the enterprise ? Nay, verily. A far different motive 
lay concealed beneath the gilded folds of royal 
dupUcity. Standing upon an eminence of a seat in 
the British Parliament, the political seer could easily 
penetrate the dark vista of the future, and predict 
the result of the unhallowed agitation of this vexed 
question. 

But why commence the work in States where the 
institution does not exist ? Why not go into the 
slave States, and meet the question fairly, by dis- 



are boiled, which is set down in the middle of the floor, and parents and 
children squat down like Hottentots on tlie ground and eat their food 
with their fingers, sometimes with salt and often without ; this is literally 
the whole of their living, day after day, and year after year, excepting 
that on Christmas day they contrive to get a little piece of meat and a 
bit of bread.' The writer has seen thousands, yea, a million, living so. 
'I could hardly credit my own senses,' continues he, 'until 1 went into 
the cabins, and felt my way in the smoke and darkness, and actually put 
ray hand on the turf sides.' Here they all lie down, parents and children, 
brothers and sisters, on the straw at night, huddled together, literally 
naked, with the pigs, oftentimes the ass or horse, and sometimes the 
cow in the same room. 'Such is the manner of Jiving of large masses 
of the people of Ireland. 'And this in a country belonging to the richest 
and most refined people on the globe, not forty-eight hours journey from 
London; not one-fourth part of which is cultivated, and containing 
millions of nntiiled acres of as rich land as the sun ever shone upon.' 
The heart sickens at such details of human misery. The condition 
of these people is worse, by far, than that of the negro slaves of the 
(slave-holding States of this country, whose condition excites so much 
Bympathy among the self-styled philanthropists of Great Britain." 



ON" ABOLITIONISM. 447 

cussing it with those who alone were empowered to 
legislate with respect to the institution of slavery ? 
The reason is obvious. This warfare did not originate 
in any inate opposition to the principle of servitude 
or bondage, or from any inherent love of universal 
liberty, which existed or was cherished in the hearts 
of its originators. Had this been the case, an ample 
field for the exercise of their benevolent desires and 
philanthropic emotions existed in their own immediate 
midst, A far diflferent motive influenged the action 
of these cunning deceivers and unprincipled dema- 
gogues. They foresaw that direful consequences to 
republicanism, and to the whole American people, 
hung suspended upon the proposed agitation of this 
question, the prosecution of this w^arfare upon the 
part of the Northern free States. It was evident 
that every aggressive movement made by these fac- 
tionists in the north, would produce a correspondent, 
or counteracting movement on the part of the friends 
of the south. Thus do we discover the true origin 
of this unhallowed faction, this unrighteous combina- 
tion of foreign and domestic talent and influence, 
against the welfare of our common country. It 
originated with the enemies of universal freedom and 
republican liberty, the faAvning sycophants of tyranny, 
the willing tools of oppression. The principles of 
modern al)olitionism were first promulged in the 
northern free States by British demagogues and 
emissaries, supported by British gold, as have been 
their successors to the present day. All, from the 



448 



STRICTURES 



district school pedagogue of the Garrisonian school, 
to the Honorable Senator advocating with burning 
eloquence in the Halls of Crongress, the beauties (?) 
of the Wilmot Proviso, have received and acknow- 
ledged the irresistible influence of the same corrupting 
golden agency. Says the able correspondent of the 
National Intelligencer : — 

"On your side of the Atlantic, you cannot be ignorant 
how well they understand the power and application of 
money, as well as slandei-, in their two-fold crusade. We, 
who learn their secret, and scan their public operations, 
in Great Britain and France, positively know that they 
gather and use extraordinary sums, and they have always 
at command ample subsidees for every kind of service. 
We are not surprised, that while they deal chiefly with 
stipendiaries, they should arraign, as corrupt, all indepen- 
dent judgment and action against their own designs and 
machinations. American character in general has seriously 
suffered, by the unremitted, wide-spread, unscrupulous 
war in Europe, which, for many years past, has been 
carried on against American slavery and slaveholders. 
In every quarter, the enemies of our Union, and Repub- 
licanism, calculate most on the slavery question as a 
disturber, and dissolvent, and as an expedient of de- 
formation and discredit. If the European nations, or 
people — British, French, or other — should at any time 
be disposed to second, or urge their governments in 
belligerent endeavors to cripple American power and 
institutions, it will be from the diffiisive prejudices and 
antipathies, from the aversion or odium, created by the 
machinei-y of the anti-slavery societies and their abettors. 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 449 

Last winter, pamphlets written and })rinted in New 
England, were placed in Galignani's Reading Rooms, 
to attract English readers, which filled me with horror, 
ly the enormity of the charges and invectives, and the 
intensity of the venom lavished on the American slave- 
holders universally, and indeed on the whole American 
people, except abolition zealots. I have closely followed 
and studied, m America and Europe, the proceedings, 
dispositions, and purposes of this sect, which has invented 
and spread more noxious falsehood and atrocious calumny 
than any other of modern times, and whose schemes 
involve more malignity and evil than could be imputed 
to Jesuits, Uluminati, Carbonari, or the other orders and 
associations denounced as conspirators against human 
welfare." 

A dissolution of the Union was, undoubtedly, the 
ultimate and real design of those foreign founders 
and abettors of abolitionism. This gained, and the 
pride of the British lion would be avenged for the 
disgraceful defeats and losses sustained during the 
revolutionary and late wars. Not unwisely, then, 
did they count upon " the slavery question as a 
disturber and dissolvent," as an effectual expedient 
CO cripple American power and institutions. They 
acted the part of sagacious and accomplished states- 
men, in selecting this as the Archimedian lever, with 
which to subvert the grand superstructure of American 
Independence. They have effectually sowed the seeds 
of discord and disaffection in our midst, of which 
" disunion " is the legitimate and inevitable offsprmg, 



450 STRICTURES 

unless checked by tlie conservative principles of 
truth, reason, and justice. Our Union dissolved, 
and all that the most inveterate enemies of republican 
liberty, of civil and religious freedom, ccPuld desire, 
is accomphshed. How near we have approximated 
to this result, the present convulsed and pertui-bated 
state of the country, and the late disgraceful scenes 
enacted in the halls of our national legislature, too 
clearly indicate. That we stand upon the verge of 
a fearful revolution, is evident, unless saved by the 
timely interference of the genial spu-it of concession 
and compromise. 

Modern abolitionism, then, we discover, is not a 
thing which exists in name only, a shadow without 
a substance, a mere child of fancy ; but a stern 
reahty, and deep-layed consj)iracy, a well-organized 
system, upheld by a powerful combination of the most 
powerful and dangerous enemies of our common 
country, who are actuated by a desire, not to amehorate 
the condition of the benighted African, but to strike 
a death-blow at the genius of republican liberty, to 
sap the very foundations of our civil polity, to poison 
the gushing fountains of our domestic tranquillity, 
social intercourse, and national security. That our 
country, the cause of human freedom and national 
civilization, the cause of all mankind, have more to 
fear from this organization, than from all other opposing 
elements combined, we entertain not a doubt. To 
prove that we speak not unadvisedly, and that our 
fears and deductions are not unfounded, we beg 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 451 

leave to introduce the following, from authorities, the 
intelligence of whom, we presume, will not for a 
moment be questioned : — 

[Fro?n the Nashville Union.] 

" The Union, Past and Future. — We have received 
a pamphlet entitled, ' The Union, Past and Future — 
How it Works, and how to Save it. By a Citizen of 
Virginia.' It is, as the Richmond Enquirer remarks, 
in noticing it, a most luminous exposition of the ex- 
traordinary advantages which the North has derived 
over the South from the Union ; the wonderful resources 
which capacitate the South for entire independence of 
the North ; the reliance of the latter upon the former 
for its prosperity — its inevitable poverty in peace, and 
weakness in war, in the event of a dissolution — and 
the overwhelming considerations of interest and policy, 
which should thus induce the North to cease the prosecu- 
tion of those suicidal measures which endanger her 
longer enjoyment of the incalculable blessings of wealth 
and power, protection and honor, flowing to her, under 
the Union, from the very institutions which she would 
destroy. No threats are made — no menaces indulo^ed. 
A candid statement is given of the facts in the case, 
and of the relations which the two great geographical 
divisions of the country sustain to each other in a politico- 
economical point of view. The munificent generosity 
of the South — the heavy and unequal burdens she has 
borne, and still bears, in the support of the Federal 
Government — the splendid abundance of her varied 
resources, still multiplying, still enlarging — the safety and 



452 STRICTURES 

facility with which she could maintain her own Union, 
with a less expenditure of revenue, than she now 
annually contributes quite gratuitously for the benefits 
of the North — her manly determination to require 
" Equality of Independence " — these facts are calmly, 
but plainly and distinctly stated : not, indeed, to en- 
courage the idea of dissolution, but to remind us that 
we are under no grinding necessity, no compulsion of 
poverty, for ever to endure Northern vassalage, usurpa- 
tion, and insults, and to open the eyes of the North, too 
long blinded by power, to her true interests and imminent 
danger. 

"It would be well for the Union, if this pamphlet were 
circulated throughout its whole extent, and read by all its 
millions. It would bring home to the South a knowledge 
of her real strength. It would bring home to the North a 
knowledge of her real weakness. It would show the 
one that she could sustain herself alone, in peace and 
war, with safety and honor. It would show the other 
that alone, in peace or war, she must ignobly fall with 
" all her greatness." It would inspire the South with a 
manly independence, which would disdain further com- 
promises of her interests and dignity, where concession 
has but led to aggression, and magnanimity to imposition. 
It would inspire the North with a just sense of her 
dependence, and an enlightened apprehension of losing, 
by the further provocation of a generous, but outraged 
and indignant people, the grand sources of her prosperity, 
happiness, and honor. Each section would better under- 
stand the attitude of the other, and such understanding 
might lead to the permanent establishment of a more 
equal and harmonious Union. 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 45S 

" Below we present a series of extracts from this 
excellent pamphlet, interspersed with an occasional 
remark of our own 

" After a brief introduction, the author sets out with a 
proposition which he fully establishes by facts and figures : 
* The history of the causes of the present crisis, is the 
history of ever-growing demands on the part of the North, 
and of concession on the part of the South.' We cannot 
follow him step by step, but must content ourselves with 
marking only a few of the principal m€t<e on the courses. 
He begins with the cession, by Virginia, to the Union, 
of the magnificent domain north-west of the Ohio — the 
most splendid dower that ever bride gave away to please 
her grasping lord ; — 

*' ' It was a country well suited for slavery, for even so 
late as 1806, we find a convention of the inhabitants of 
Indiana petitioning for its temporary inti'oduction, and a 
committee of the House of Representatives reporting 
through their chairman, Mr. Garnett, of Virginia, in favor 
of their prayer. But while Virginia was guilty of this 
suicidal generosity, she annexed one condition for her 
own advantage, that no moi"e than five States should be 
formed out of this territory, so as to preserve a due 
balance of political power in the Union. Yet even this 
condition the North has violated, and 22,336 square miles 
of its area, more than the average size of all the free 
States east of the Ohio, have gone to constitute the future 
State of Minnesota. 

" ' This was the first step, and the next was at the 
formation of the present Constitution, when a contest 
arose as to the i-atio of representation. Should the South 
have as many repiesentatives, in proportion to her 
population, as the North? It was just and right that, 
she should. The Federal Government had no concern 
with llie relations between blacks and whites, the classes 



454 STKICTURES 

of her population. It had no right to inquire whether 
the negro was a slave or free. The slaves were a 
better population than the free negroes, and if the latter 
were to be counted at their full number in the appoint- 
ment of representation, so ought the former. The right 
could not be refused, because the slaves were naturally 
or legally equal to the whites, for so are the free negroes. 
It could not be refused, because they have no political 
rights, for neither have the free negi'oes, paupers, women, or 
children. They are an essential part of the population ; 
if absent, their places must be filled by other laborers, 
and if they are property as well as population, it is 
an additional reason for giving their owners the security 
of full representation for them. But the South, as usual, 
yielded to Northern exorbitance, and agreed that five 
slaves should count only as three free negroes. There- 
fore, instead of 103 representatives in Congj-ess, we have 
only 91. 

"'But the free States are not content with this, and 
now propose to take away twenty-one more of our 
representatives. They say that the right of representa- 
tion for three-fifths of our slave population, is a sufiicient 
reason for refusing admission into the Union to any new 
slave States and Massachusetts has proposed, by a solemn 
legislative resolution, to amend the Constitution so as to 
deprive us of this guaranteed repiesentation. Public 
meetings and eminent men have approved of her 
proposal. 

'• ' In return for this surrender of her rights, the South 
inserted in the Constitution two stipulations in her own 
fav(jr. The first provided, that direct taxes should be 
apportioned amongst the States in the ratio of their 
representation. According to this provision, we ought 
now to pay a little more than one-third of the taxes; we 
actually 2)ay, under the present system, over three-fourths. 
The amount levied from customs, since the formation of 
the Government, has been about one thousand and forty- 
seven millions of dollars ; and had these duties been paid 
in the ratio which the Constitution indicates as just and 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 455 

proper, the South would have paid four hundred and 
forty-two, and the North six hundred and five millions 
of dollars. But, as we shall see hereafter, the slave 
States have really paid seven hundred and ninety-eight 
millions of dollars, and the free States only two hundred 
and forty-nine millions of dollars. Therefore, the South 
has gained nothing by this stipulation in return for her 
loss of reputation. 

" ' The other stipulation in favor of the South, was, that 
' no person held to service or labor in one State, under 
the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in conse- 
quence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged 
from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on 
claim of party to whom such service or labor may be 
due.' This provision rests for its due fulfilment, not 
merely upon the Federal Government, but, like a treaty 
stipulation between distant nations, must be carried into 
effect by the municipal regulations of the parties, and 
their comity and good feeling. Yet what has it been 
worth to the S6uth '.' So far from executing this clause, 
and * delivering up ' the runaway slaves, the free States 
refuse to pass any efficient law to that end in Congress ; 
and such is their state of feeling, and such their domestic 
laws, that any federal law, even if enacted, could not be 
executed. In their own governments, they make it a 
criminal offence, punishable by fine and imprisonment, 
for any officer, and in some States for any ci(ize?is, to 
assist in seizing or ' delivering up ' a fugitive slave. 
Their whites and their free negroes assemble in mobs to 
lescue the slave from the master who is bold enough to 
capture him, and then accusing himself of the riot they 
made themselves, throw him in a felon's jail, and load 
him with fetters, as Pennsylvania has recently done by a 
respectable citizen of Maryland. When Troutman, of 
Kentucky, pursued his slaves into the town of Marshall, 
in Michigan, he wns surrounded by a mob, led by the 
most influential citizens, who declared that ' (hough the 
law was in his favor, yet the public sentiment must and 
should supercede it,' and a I'esolution was tumultuously 
39 



456 STRICTURES 

adopted, that * these Kentuckians shall not remove from 
this place these slaves by moral, physical, or legal force.' 
A Magistrate fined Troulman, one hundred dollars for the 
tresspass in attempting to arrest his slave ; and he was 
recognized to appear at the next Circuit Court, for 
drawing a pistol on a negro who was forcing the door of 
his room ! But this was a mild treatment compared v/ith 
the fate of the lamented Kennedy, of Hagerstown. 
When he followed his slave into Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 
and was peaceably, with his own consent, bringing him 
away, an infuriated mob of whites and free blacks, incited 
by the Professor of a College, assaulted and brutally 
murdered him ! It is estimated by Mr. Clingman, that 
the whole loss to the South, in fugitive slaves, is not lesa 
than fifteen millions of dollars. Mr. Butler, of the Senate, 
estimated the annual loss to the South at two hundred 
thousand dollars, and more recent statements make it 
probable that he was under the true amount. The 
philanthropy of the North does not extend to voluntary 
free negro emigrants from the South, but is confined to 
the runaway slaves, whom it can force by fear to work 
for immoderately low wages.' 

" Briefly tracing the growth of the anti-slavery faction 
in the North, the author next proceeds to speak of the 
admission of Missouri. He says: — 

" * A clause prohibiting slavery was inserted into the 
bill for the admission of Missouri, when it became 
apparent that her people would reject such a bill, if 
passed, and with a government regularly organized, 
according to all the constitutional precedents, would 
remain without the Union as a separate, independent 
State, unless the federal authority undertook to subdue 
her, and convulsed the country by a civil war. In 
this state of the question, the South had only to remain 
firm, and the North would be forced to yield ; but, as 
usual, the South was weak enough to retreat from her 
ground, and, in her love for the Union, she submitted 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



457 



to a provision for ever prohibiting slavery in all that 
part of the Territory of Louisiana (except Missouri 
itself) which lies north of 36*^ 30', the southern boundary 
of Virginia and Kentucky. The South thus lost, without 
any equivalent, nine-tenths of what was already a 
slave territory, purchased by the common treasure. 
She retained only one hundred and ten thousand square 
miles for the emigration of her own citizens, and sur- 
rendered nine hundred and sixty-five thousand to the 
North. 

" ' Yet even this so-called compromise, forced upon 
us by Northern voters, is now spurned by the free 
States. They have derived all the possible benefit from 
it on this side of the Rocky Mountains, and they refuse 
us the poor advantage which it would secure, of two 
hundred and four thousand, three hundred and eighty- 
three square miles, out of eight hundred and sixty-seven 
thousand, five hundred and forty-one on the other side !' 



" Here follows the climax. The extract is long, but 
we are sure it will repay perusal : — 

" ' It is now proposed to exclude the South from the 
Territory of California and New Mexico, four hundred 
and forty-six thousand, nine hundred and thirty-eight 
square miles, large enough to make more than eleven 
States equal to Ohio. The South paid her share, and, as 
we shall see, far more than her full share, of the expensea 
of the Mexican war. Of the gallant volunteers who 
fought its battles, she furnished forty-five thousand six 
hundred and forty, and the North twenty-three thousand 
and eighty-four — but little more than half as many. She 
sent one man out of every twenty-six of military age — 
the North only sent one out of every one hundred and 
twenty-four. How those battles were fijught and won, 
of which section the Generals were natives, whose 
regiments faltered, and whose left two of their men 
stretched upon the bloody field, while the third planted 
the stars and stripes upon the Mexican baltleraenta, 



458 STRICTURES 

the South will leave to history to say. And now it is 
proposed to exclude the survivors and their fellow-citizens 
from the equal enjoyments of the conquest of the war ! 
And why ? — because, as the Vermont resolutions declare, 
' Slavery is a crime against humanity /' 

" ' The North next propose to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia, and so make a harbor for run- 
aways, and a centre of abolition agitation in the very 
heart of Virginia and Maryland. This is to be done in 
defiance, alike of good faith and of constitutional 
obligation ; and why '{ because, as the Gott resolution, 
passed by the House of Representatives, declares, 
' Slavery is infamous /' 

" * The Northern vote in Congress on these questions 
is almost unanimous, without distinction of parties, 
against the South. The exceptions are daily fewer, 
swept away by the overpowering side of fanatical public 
sentiment at the North. The State legislatures are 
equally agreed. They have all, and the majority more 
than once, adopted resolutions of the most offensive 
character. The next treat is to abolish slavery in the 
dockyards, forts, and arsenals, for there Congress has the 
same jurisdiction and responsibility as in the District. 
It is asserted that slavery cannot exist, without a special 
law to establish it, in the new Territories, because property / 

in negroes is, as they pretend, a creation of municipal ) 

regulation alone, and, therefore, ceases beyond the limits 
of the State which authorizes it. Not only does this 
argument fail in its major proposition, for there is no law 
establishing slavery in any state where it exists ; but it 
fails also in its application, for the limits and authority 
of each slave State now extend to the new Territory held 
by the common Federal agent. But, if true, by parity 
of reasoning, slavery cannot exist on the high seas, and 
so say our abolitionists. Therefore, the slaves who leave 
Richmond on a voyage to New Orleans, are free as soon 
as the vessel leaves the shore. The prohibition of what 
they call tlie slave trade on the high seas, and then on 
the Mississippi, whose waters they pretend are common 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 459 

property, and then between the states, will quickly follow 
each other. What would be left the South in such a 
condition 1 With asylums for runaways and stations for 
abolition agents in every state ; the mail converted into a 
colporteur of incendiary tracts ; forbid to carry our slaves 
iiom state to state ; unable to migrate to new or more 
fertile lands, and thus renovate our fortunes and give our 
sons a new theatre for their energies, without sacrificing 
all our habits, associations, and property, and yet, with all 
this, bound to pay taxes and fight battles for conquests, we 
are to have no share in and for a government known to 
us only by its tyranny, how miserable would be our 
thraldom ! Can any Southern man bear the idea of such 
degradation ? He micjht endure the loss of his rich 
conquests in California, but can he bear to be excluded 
because his institutions are infamous 1 because he is 
branded with inferiority, and under the ban of the 
civilized world 1 If he can, then is he worthy of all, and 
more than all, that is threatened him. 

" ' But abolition will not stop, even when slavery is 
thus hemmed in, 'localized and discouraged,' as senator 
Chase proposes. Anti-slavery sentiment is to be made 
the indispensable condition of appointment to Federal 
Office ; and thus, by bringing Southern men to treachery, 
the war is to be cariied on to the last fell deed of all — 
I he abolition of slavery within the States — for, to quote 
Randolph once more, ' Fanaticism, political or religious, 
iias no stopping place, short of Heaven, or — of Hell !' 

" ' The slave states have but thirty votes in the Senate, 
and two of these (Delaware) can hardly be counted upon 
in their defence. Nor is it possible to increase her 
strength by new slave states. Rufus King long since 
avowed that the object of the North was political power, 
and she will never permit Florida or Texas to be divided. 
A serious claim is already set up to all Texas west of 
the Nueces, as new territory, acquired by treaty from 
Mexico, to which the Wilmot proviso may and should 
be applied. The only territory south of the Missouii 
compromise line, and east of the Rocky Mountains, is 



460 STRICTURES 

the district of fifty-eight thousand, three hundred and 
forty-six square miles, ceded f(jr ever to the Indians ; 
on the other hand the North has west of the Mississippi 
and east of the Rocky Mountains, exclusive of the 
Indian territory, 

723,248 square miles. 
Add the part of the old Northvv^est 

Territory, added to Minnesota in 

violation of the Virginia deed of 

cession 22,336 " •' 

All of Oregon ... - 341,463 



In all of undisputed territory 1,087,047 " " 

or enough to make twenty-eight such States as Ohio, or 
twenty-one larger than Iowa. This addition alone to the 
strength of the North would give her nearly the three- 
fourths required to amend the Constitution and abolish 
slavery at her pleasure, if we can suppose that she 
would take the trouble to enact an amendment to do 
that which Mr. Adams declared could be done, in certain 
cases, under half a dozen clauses in the Constitution as 
it now stands. But when we consider that, in case of 
our suhniission to the Wilmot proviso, the North will 
liave all California, 

448,691 square miles. 
New Mexico east of the Rio Grande 124,933 " " 

Texas, between the Nueces and the 

Rio Grande ... - 52,018 



In all 625,642 

more than all the present free States, equal to twenty-one 
States of their average size, or sixteen such states as 
Ohio, or twelve larger than Iowa, in addition to all we 
before computed, her preponderance becomes truly 
enormous. Fifteen slaves States to seventy-four free 
States — not to mention the chances for several more in 
Canada ! Can any one suppose that such a union could 
subsist as a union of equals ? 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 461 

" ' In this alarming situation, the South has no hope 
but in her own firmness. She wished to preserve the 
Union as it was, and she must, therefore, insist upon 
sufficient guaranties for the observance of her riglrts 
and her future poHtical equality, or she must dissolve a 
Union which no longer possesses its original character. 
When this alternative is placed before the North, she will 
determine, according to the value she places upon the 
federal league, and we may anticipate her choice if we 
can count what it has been worth to her, and how 
large a moral and material treasure she must surrender, 
if she persists in pushing her aggi'essions to its over- 
throw.' " 

\_Spccc7i, of T. L. Clingttian, of North Carolina.] 

" Sir, the force and extent of the present anti-slavery 
movement of the North is not understood by the South. 
Until within the last few months, I had supposed that 
even if California and New Mexico should come in as 
free States, that agitation would subside so as to produce 
no further action. A few months' travel in the interior 
of the North has changed my opinion. Such is now 
the condition of public sentiment there, that the making 
of the Mexican territory all free, in any mode, would be 
regarded as an anti-slavery triumph, and would accelerate 
the general movement against us. Tt is not difficult to 
perceive how that state of public sentiment has been 
produced there. The old abolition societies have done 
a good deal to poison the popular mind. By circulating 
an immense number of inflammatory pamphlets, filled 
with all manner of falsehood and calumny against the 
South, its institutions, and its men, because there was no 
contradiction in that quarter, they had created a high 
degree of prejudice against us. As soon as it became 



462 



STKICTURES 



probable that there wuuld be an acquisition of territory, 
the question at once became a great practical one, and 
the politicians immediately took the matter in hand. 
With a view at once of strengthening the position, they 
seized upon this matter which the abolition societies 
(whose aid both parties courted in the struggle) had 
furnished from time to time, and diffused and strengthened 
it as much as possible, and thereby created an immense 
amount of hostility to Southern institutions. Everything 
there contributes to this movement ; candidates are 
brought out by the caucus system, and If they fall to 
take that sectional ground which Is deemed strongest 
there, they are at once discarded. The mode of nomina- 
ting candidates, as well as of conducting the canvass, Is 
destructive of anything like independence in the represen- 
tative. They do not, as gentlemen often do in the South 
and West, take ground against the popular clamor, and 
sustain themselves by direct appeals to the Intelligence 
and reason of their constituents. Almost the whole of 
the Northern press co-operated in the movement, with 
the exception of the New York Herald, (which, wuh its 
large circulation, published matter on both sides,) and a 
few other liberal papers, everything favorable to the 
South has been carefully excluded from the Northern 
papers. By these combined efforts, a degree of feeling 
and prejudice has been gotten up against the South, 
which Is most Intense in all the Interioi*. 

" I was surprised last winter to hear a Northern 
Senator say, that in the town in which he lived it would 
excite great astonishment If it were known that a 
Northern lady would, at the time of the meeting of 
the two Houses, walk up to the Capitol with a Southern 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 463 

Senator; that they had always been taught to consider 
Southerners generally as being eo coarse and ruffianly in 
manner that a lady would not trust herself in such a 
presence. This anecdote, sir, does not present too strong 
a picture of the condition of sentiment in portions of 
the interior of the Northern country. How far 
gentlemen on this floor are to be influenced in their 
action by such a state of opinion, I leave them to 
decide." 

Let no one, therefore, be consoled with the idea, 
that thia self-styled " American Anti-Slavery Society," 
is wanting either in numbers or influence. It is a 
powerful combination of American and foreign talent 
and capital, composed of all sects and parties, of 
all castes, grades, and conditions of society, from 
the British lord to the factory operative, from the 
self-important Free-soiler, to the ranting factionist 
of the Garrisonian school ; all alike infatuated with 
a principle of fanaticism which knows no bound ; 
capable of wielding an influence, which has already 
shaken our government from its centre to its cir- 
cumference, and which wUl be felt for ages to 
come. 

The principles involved in the organization of this 
faction are erroneous, and inconsistent with the well- 
being of both master and slave. They were conceived 
in sin, and brought forth in iniquity. They are in 
direct violation of the laws of God and man, of 
reason and revelation, being an unqualified warfare 
upon an institution wisely ordained by Divine benefi- 



46-i 



STRICTURES 



cencc, and sanctioned by the whole volume of human 
experience. It is alleged, that the slaveholder is, of 
necessity, an unprincipled tyrant ; nay, worse, an 
irreligious libertine, ■who regards neither the laws of 
God, nor man, nor respects the established usages 
and customs of civilized society. Although he is 
but exercising a right which is guarantied by the 
constitution of our common country, and acting in 
conformity with a principle which was recognized as 
of old by our forefathers, the framers of the organic 
law of the land, those pure patriots of the revolution, 
who acknowledged no other standard of justice than 
that contained in the sacred writings ; yet is he 
denounced by these miserable factionists, as the most 
corrupt, licentious, and profligate of all the sons of 
men. Regardless of the teachings of the inspired 
volume and human experience, corroborated by the 
evidence of their own senses, they have assumed 
that all men of every race, nation, tribe, and kindred 
under heaven, are morally, intellectually, and physi- 
cally, equal ; and upon this wild and fallacious 
hypothesis, they have based their false theory, and 
maintained it with a zeal worthy of a good cause. 
The basis upon which their policy rests, is the 
assumption that slavery is sinful and unp-ofit- 
ahle. 

Having failed in their endeavors to convince the 
Blaveholder that the former is true, and that he is 
bound by obligations the most sacred and uncom- 
promising, to adopt immediate and unconditional 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



465 



emancipation, tlicj have assumed the latter horn of 
the dilemma, and now contend that slavery is 
unprojitable, that it tends to impoverish the State, 
and weaken the resources of the Government. The 
means upon which they now rely to arrest the 
progress of slavery, and curtail the powers and 
influence of the slave States, is not the persuasion 
of the people of those States, but the numerical 
power of the free, States actmg through the Federal 
Government. 

" The great principle upon which the Northern move- 
ment rests, which is already adopted by most northern 
politicians, and to which they all seem likely to be driven 
by the force of the popular current there, if the question 
is unsettled till the next Congressional election, is this : 
That the Government of the United States must do 
nothing to sanction slavery ; that it must therefore exclude 
it from the Territories; that it must abolish it in the 
District of Columbia, forts, and arsenals, and wherever 
it has jurisdiction. Some, too, carrying the principle 
to its extent, insist that the coasting slave trade, and that 
between the States, should be abolished, and also in 
custom-houses, post-offices, and the like. As these things 
all obviously rest on the same general dogma, it is clear 
that the yielding of one or more points would not check, 
but would merely accelerate, the general movement to 
the end of the series. Before this end was reached, 
they would probably append, as a corollary, the principle 
that the President should not appoint a slaveholder to 
office. It is, sir, my deliberate judgment, that, in the 
present temper of the public mind at the North, if the 



466 STRICTURES 

lenitorial question remains open till the next election, 
few, if any, gentlemen will get there from the free States, 
that are not pledged to the full extent of the abolition 
platform." — Extract from a Speech in Congress, hy T. 
L. Clingman, of North Carolina. 

The following report of what Mr. Clay said ia 
from the National Intelligencer. The remarks are 
brief, but to the point. Mr. Clay savs : — 

" I cannot allow this occasion to pass without calling 
to the attention of the Senate a fact connected with most 
of these petitions. Sir, the moment a prospect opens in 
this unhappy country of settling our differences, these 
disturbers of the peace, these abolitionists put themselves 
in motion — the Jays, the Phillipses, and others in other 
quarters — and they establish a concerted and ramified 
plan of operations ; and I want to expose it to the 
Senate. Here, sir, is a little bit of printed paper 
[holding up the petitions which had been delivered to 
him] scattered throughout the whole country. Some 
of them found their way into my own State. I presented 
them the other day from Lewis county, printed, I 
have no doubt, at a common centre, and dispersed 
throughout the country, in order to produce a common 
effect, and to make an impression on this body as if they 
were speaking the public sentiment in this country. 

[After having been called to ordei" by Mr. Hale, on 
the ground that the petition had already been passed 
upon, and after some conversation, in which Mr. Clay 
stated the rules to be, that the Senator might state the 
grounds of a motion before making it, and that he could 



ON ABOLITlONISxM. 467 

put himself in order by concluding with a motion to refer 
the petitions — he proceeded as follows : — ] 

" Well, sir, I do not know that I shall present any 
such motion, but I have a right to put myself in order 
by making such a motifjn, and I trust the honorable 
Senator, who is listened to by myself with as much 
complacency as any body, will not manifest any very 
great impatience at my calling the attention of the 
Senate to this ramified and concerted plan of the 
abolitionists to circulate their little bits of printed petitions 
adaptfed to all the variety of cases ; one for abolishing 
the slave trade ; one for abolishing slavery in the District 
of Columbia; one for removing the seat of government 
from this District ; in every shape and mode in which 
they can bring up the question of slavery, I trust that 
neither the Senator nor his friends, in the house or out 
of the house, will manifest any great degree of im- 
patience while I call the attention of the Senate and of 
the country to the fact, and show that the object is to 
manufacture a sort of public opinion in order to make an 
impression upon us at a moment when we are endeavor- 
ing to heal the wounds of the country and to reconcile its 
distracted and unhappy parts. 

" Sir, of all the bitterest enemies toward the unfortu- 
nate negro race, there are none to compare with these f 
abolitionist pretended friends of theirs ; but who, like ) 
the Siamese twins, connect themselves with the negro, | 
or, like the centaur of old, mount not the back of a horse, i 
but the back of the negro to ride themselves into power, ( 
and in order to display a friendship they feel only for ( 
themselves, and not for the negro race. No, sir, there ; 
are no worse enemies in the country of the negro race } 



468 



STRICTURES 



than these ultra abolitionists. To what sorts of extremity 
have they not driven the slave-holding States in defence 
of their own rights, and guarding against those excesses 
to which they have a constant tendency," 

With them argument, and sophistry, and deception, 
have become exhausted, and they now resort to 
force. The principle for wliich they at tliis time 
contend, is the same as that upon which the society 
was originally organized, viz., tlie unqualified abolition 
of slavery, or the separation of the free from the 
slave States.* At a Free-Soil Convention, held at 
Fanieul Hall, Boston, March 6th, 1850, one of the 



* " The Banner of Disunion Unfurled. — We notice that the 
abolitionists, under the lead ot Mr. Lloyd Garrison, the President of the 
American Anti-slavery Society, in their call for the Sixteenth annual 
meeting of their organization, which takes place in New York, on the 
7th of May, makes the following announcement. These traitors are 
emboldened by the free-soil movement to persist in their audacious 
treason: 

" A contest of near twenty years has proved that the only hopeful 
issue with slavery is the demand for the IMMEDIATE AND UN- 
CONDITIONAL EMANCIPATION OF EVERY SLAVE, and that 
such a consummation can never be attained so long as we maintain a 
political Union with Slaveholders, 

" The northern boundary of the slave States is the same to-day that it 
was when the American Society came into existence ; its Southern is 
extended Westward and Southward, embracing vast and fertile 
territories sufficient to insure its existence for centuries to come. It is 
something to be thankful and hopeful for, that the extension has not 
been without a struggle, and that struggle becomes daily more and 
more earnest and determined. It will be entirely successful when 
the North is awakened to the conviction that the Abolition of 
Slavery will alone deteniniie its extension — that the Southern and 
^Vcstern boundary will no longer be contended for when its Northern 
is destroyed." 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



469 



orators, a genius named Willson, said : " We ought 
to come up -R'ith frankness to the point — Union or no 
union, i^eace or war, victory or no victory ! Let us 
come up to-day and pledge ourselves that we Avill 
remain true to the principles we have adopted." 

We subjoin one other tribute to the same sentiment 
of disunion. The following comment on the " Death 
of Mr. Calhoun," is from the Wew YorJc Anti-Slavery 
Standard, the leading organ of the faction : — 

" The Telegraph from Washington brings the intelli- 
gence of the death of John Caldwell Calhoun, the great 
champion of human bondage, and the leader of that 
party in the Republic which counted men as brutes, and 
which demands the sacrifice of the rights of the many to 
the power of the few. To his friends and equals, Mr. 
Calhoun has the reputation of having discharged, well 
and nobly, all the duties demanded by that relation ; but 
to his inferiois, the servants of his household, though he 
may have fed and clothed them well,* he has been, 



* Would that as much could be said of these beautiful models of 
consistency and philanthrophy (?) Are the servants oi their households — 
their equals in birth, caste, and blood, and their superiors in natural 
goodness of heart, well fed and clothed ? Will the pitiful remuneration 
which they receive for their labors, from these votaries of freedom and 
equal rights, enable them to supply themselves and families with the 
bare necessaries of life during the hours of sickness, and the cold, 
dreary months of winter? Will " a long, loud wail of bitter lamentatioa 
and deep sorrow," go up from the wretched hovels, the cold, crowded 
garrets and damp cellars, subterranean abodes of the poor and distressed, 
in their own immediate neighborhoods, when their death knells are 
sounded? Let the starving, perishing widows and orphans who inhabit 
these hovels give the answer. 



470 STRICTURES 

from position and principle, a cruel and heartless tyrant. 
So far as he may have believed himself to be acting 
right, he is deserving of respect in having acted up to his 
belief; beyond that, he is only to be regarded as one 
who w^as a systematic robber of the poorest of God's 
children. Better loould it have been for the world, had he 
never been horn ; hut having lived, we regret, in his 
death, that he had not lived long enough to accomplish the 
object of his life — the Dissolution of the Union of 
THESE States." 

Thus we discover, that the only difference per- 
ceptible, is in the name, and in the " modus operandi'' 
— the society having become better organized and 
more numerous, and, therefore, more dangerous. 
The advocate of Free Soilism is no other than an 
improved (?) disciple of the Garrisonian school. He 
■who would exclude, by his vote, the slaveholder from 
a residence in the territories acquired by the common 
blood and treasure of the countrj^, would harbor and 
encourage the flying fugitive, or contribute to a 
crusade against the legalized, inalienable rights and 
constitutional privileges of the Southern division of 
the Union. If not, he is not consistent with himself, 
as each is of a kindred nature, and alike violations 
of the organic law of the land. The friends of the 
South, of Soutjiern rights and interests, can no longer 
stand and survey, with silent contempt and indigna- 
tion, the secret workings and machinations of these 
detestable factionists and disorganizers. A well- 
organized system of opposition — not to the established 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 471 

Constitution and Government under which we live — 
to the great Federal Union, which all should cherish 
and promote, as invaluable and sacred ; but to their 
aggressions, or rather a system of protection to 
Southern interests and institutions, ought to receive the 
unqualified sanction and support of every American 
citizen, of every friend of humanity. 

Let, then, every citizen of the slaveholding States, 
feel that he has a work to accomplish — that he is 
called upon by every feeling of interest, patriotism, 
and philanthropy, to organize, in self-defence, not 
against the Government or the Union, but for the 
protection of his family and fireside, his property and 
his most sacred rights, religious and political ; against 
the midnight attacks and aggressions of an organized 
army of diabolical outlaws. Let him examine the 
ground upon which he stands, and the circumstances 
which surround him. Let liim survey the length 
and the breadth, the huge and uncomely proportions 
of this hydra-headed monster of corruption, which 
threatens to swallow up the peace and prosperity, 
the property and privileges of the peaceful inhabitants 
of the Southern division of this great confederacy. 

The Northern political reformers have assumed to 
legislate, with respect to the domestic institutions 
and policy of the South — to interfere with the rights 
of property, as guarantied by the Constitution of our 
common country. They propose to take from the 
slaveholder his slaves, Avhich he has inherited from 
his ancestors, the honored dead, or purchased with 
40 



472 



STKICTURES 



liis money, without remuneration or satisfaction, and 
substitute, in their stead, the rufuse population of 
the prisons and alms-houses of the old world; than 
which a greater curse could not be inflicted upon 
any people. Are the order-loving, chivalrous citizens 
of the South prepared for this exchange ? Will they 
sit supinely inactive, whilst a system of wholesale 
robbery of this character is being committed in their 
midst, upon their own property, and in their own 
households ? Let the future action of the South, 
upon the subject, give the answer. Let the people 
of the slave States be no longer divided amongst 
themselves ; let them forget all petty political differ- 
ences, and, upon this subject, " know no party ;" let 
them, as a band of brothers, become united in the 
common defence. Let them say, with one voice, to 
all abolitionists, of whatever name, sect, or party, 
" Tamper with us no longer." " Forbearance has 
ceased to be a vu'tuc, and if civil commotions distract 
and divide us further, and our Confederacy is dissolved, 
and our Government subverted, the sin be upon i/our 
heads.^' 

A dissolution of the Union, has been the favorite 
theme of these factionists from their eai'liest organiza- 
tion. Victory or Disunion, peaceably if we can, 
but forcibly if we must, is enstamped upon their 
banners. They were the fathers and propagators of 
this treasonable doctrine of a division of the States. 
They have advocated it in their periodical conventions, 
upon the forum, in the social circle. The sacred 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 473 

desk, too, has been profaned by sentiments of this 
character, from time immemorial, whilst their in- 
flammatory pubhcations have ceased not to herald them 
to the world upon every breeze. A base attempt 
has been made to sliift the odium of this traitorous 
folly and madness to the South, and charge it upon 
the citizens of the slave States. Treason against the 
Government, they now declare, is combined with the 
unpardonable sin of slavery. Fellow-citizens, are you 
prepared for this ? Do you plead guilty to the 
mfamous charge ? Is inconstancy to the Union, 
treason against the Government, a sin of Southern 
origin ? Were Arnold and Burr men of Southern 
birth and education ? Let the history of the past 
give the answer. Let the action of the future seal 
it with the same blood which has ever flowed in match- 
less profusion in the cause of liberty, in the cause of 
humanity, in the cause of our common country. 

A call for a Southern convention is proclaimed, a 
convention in which citizens of the slaveholding States 
may meet, and deliberate as to the best manner of 
protecting their oivn domestic policy and institutions, 
of securing to themselves and posterity, the inaliena- 
ble rights and privileges guarantied by the Constitution 
under which we live. Is there any thing criminal, 
treasonable, or anti-repubHcan in this?* Abolitionists 



* "As a Southern man, I cannot remain indifferent to the events that 
are daily transpiring in this country; events which are calculated, in 
my judgment, if not arrested, to distract, inflam..-, and perhaps destroy 
the Union of the States. When I hear a Southern man say, that he can 



474 STRICTURES 

have assumed the right, from time immemorial, to hold 
conventions, and deliberate, not in respect to their own 
domestic policy and institutions alone, but (consistency, 
precious jewel !) in reference to the peculiar domestic 
policy and institutions of the South. The right to 
meet and deliberate respecting their own affairs, has 



Bee nothing in the ' signs of the times ' to authorize and justify the 
South, in adopting strong- measures to repel the aggressions and outrages 
which are being made upon their rights, I am at once impressed with the 
conviction that he is obstinately blind, or an enemy to his own interests. 
Any man who is at all acquainted with public opinion at the North, with 
reference to the institution of slavery, must know that if the South does 
not make some demonstrations of willingness to maintain their rights 
Tiuder the Constitution, that ere long this great country will be plunged 
into a civil war. The question, then, springs up. How are the com- 
promises of the Constitution to be preserved inviolate, and the Union 
preserved from destruction? The answer is at hand. Let the whole 
South, without distinction of party, meet together in convention, through 
properly authorized delegates, for the purpose of setting forth, in some 
authoritat ve manner, the line of conduct that necessity will compel them 
to adopt, if the North still persist in their aggressions and outrages. My 
opiniou is, that the Northern fanatics will never cease their agitations, 
until the South shall convince them, by some overt act, that they will 
submit no longer to their unjust interference with their c'omesiic 
affairs. 

" The object of the Southern Convention, as I understand it, is not to 
dissolve the Union, or organize a Southern Confederacy, as some 
miscreants represent it, but simply to devise and agree upon some plan 
by which the distractions that now prevail in the country, may be healed, 
and render more permanent and secure the rights of the Southern portion 
of the Confederacy. Is there any thing treasonable or wrong in this? 
If it be treason to defend my rights from aggression, my property from 
destruction, and my home from desolation, then I am a traitor. But this 
hue and cry about treason, is said for the avowed purpose of blinding the 
eyes of the masses. As the whole South is vitally and deeply interested 
in the matter, let them take the management of their aflairs in their own 
bands. A SOUTHERNER." 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



475 



never been quesdoned. But vyliat do we now hear ? 
Disunion ! disunion ! a Convention for the purpose 
of dissolving the Union ! is the hue and cry of every 
abolition factionist and disorganizer throughout the 
length and breadth of the land. Fellow-citizens of 
the slaveholding States, are you prepared to be thus 
outwitted ? to be thus cheated out of your inaUenable 
rights and privileges ? 

A dissolution of the Union is undoubtedly the 
greatest calamity that could befall our hitherto happy 
and prosperous country. It is an event which no 
Christian patriot could ever contemplate for a moment, 
but with feelings of consternation and horror. It 
would be the signal for strife and contention, for 
anarchy and civil commotion, for blood and carnage 
amongst friends and brethren, amongst neighbors and 
fellow-citizens. " Thenceforth the American eagle 
woidd drop the olive branch of peace, and grasp only 
the arrows of war. The mountains that divide us, 
would be the dark mountains of death ; and the stream 
that flows between, like the waters of Egypt, would be 
turned into blood. The hand that writes the declaration 
of disunion, may it feel the blood curdle in its veins ; 
and the tongue which reads it to the world, may it 
stifien in the act." 

All the great National, State, and individual interests 
of the country, are opposed to disunion. The political 
and commercial relations of the States, combine to 
show that their natural and only true policy is union ; 
the geographical, that the God of nature never designed 



476 STRICTURES 

the territorj of the North American Continent to be, 
like the grand divisions of the old world, inhabited by 
different kingdoms, nations, and empires. The great 
natural characteristics of the new world, are on a grand 
and magnificent scale. Upon our northern boundary 
are the great lakes, in magnitude and depth unequalled, 
united in an indissoluble chain, pouring their exhaustless 
fountains over the same stupendous cataract, through 
the same channel, in the bosom of the same great 
ocean ; at the extreme south the two great oceans flow 
well nigh together, as if to blend their waves in one. 
Our mountains, which rank among the most towering 
of the globe, roll on in one unbroken chain from the 
polar to the torrid regions ; whilst our majestic rivers 
extend from centre to circumference, interlocking their 
innumerable branches together, as if in token of union. 
To advocate disunion, would be to mar the whole order 
and beauty of nature, to subvert the laws of the 
material universe, and insult the Avisdom of Deity. 
He who would harbor the inhuman, sacrilegious 
thought, let him be anathematized by heaven ; let 
him receive the mark of Cain, and be driven from the 
pale of civilized society, to wander a fugitive and a 
vagabond on the earth. Let the Constitution be 
preserved inviolate, so long as it can be done, in 
harmony with the spirit which brought it into being. 



Influence of Slavery on the Prosperity of 
THE States. — Much has been said and written respect- 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 47T 

ing the influence of slavery on the general prosperity 
and advancement of the States where it exists. 
Unwarrantable comparisons have been made, and 
unjustifiable conclusions formed, by those who under- 
stood not the relative condition of the free and the 
slave States, nor the causes which operated to produce 
the diflerence which actually exists. The contrast 
between Kentucky and Ohio, for example, has been 
often drawn, and the real diflerence magnified to an 
extent, which would well nigh justify the conclusion 
that they existed in difierent ages, in difierent chmes, 
and under difierent forms of government. 

That there is a diflerence between these two States, 
taking into consideration their ages as States, we are 
free to admit ; but, that that diflerence is wholly owing 
to the fact of one being a slave, and the other a free 
State, is false, both in principle and in fact. If this 
were true, the same principle would hold good when 
applied to diflerent counties and sections of Kentucky 
itself. But that it is not true, facts clearly demonstrate ; 
for, by examination into this matter, we find that in the 
wealthiest, most intelligent, and refined sections of that 
State, as well as of any of the slave States, the greatest 
proportion of slaves are to be found. We can cite to 
counties, and to parts of counties, and, indeed, to 
individual cases, and in every instance show that there is 
a marked diflerence in favor of the slaveholder, when 
confined to the native born citizens of the State. 

Ohio, it is true, has more flourishing towns and cities, 
and has increased more rapidly in population than 



478 STRICTURES 

Kentucky. It is also true, that there is more poverty 
and pauperism, m proportion to the population; and 
more taxation, in proportion to her aggregate wealth 
and improvements, than there is in Kentucky. This 
fact will hold good in comparing any town, city, and 
manufacturing population, with that of the peaceful 
inhabitants of the country engaged in the healthful, 
ennoblmg, and life-giving pursuits of agriculture, horti- 
culture, &c. Towns, cities, and manufacturing districts, 
are the hot-beds of vice, misery, pauperism, and de- 
gradation. It is there the extremes of wealth and 
poverty meet ; it is there that corruption and human 
wretchedness are presented in their most loathsome 
forms.* Says Coleman, in his most estimable work on 
Agriculture : — 

" The great cause of the evils vvliicli afflict humanity, 
and the multiplication of crime, and the disorders of 
society, he attributes to the fact, that ' the cultivation of 
the earth is deserted, and innumerable multitudes pour 



* "They now find it staring them in the face, from the reports of their 
own officers, that there is an amount of degradation (shameless and 
incurable, because beginning with the beginning of life,) existing within 
one city's (New York) limits, greater than can be gathered in the whole 
population of the slaveholding States." "In the slave States of this 
country, there is less of it than any where else in the world. In fact, 
there is no such things as poverty, want, and starvation, among the slaves 
Such degradation and miserj' as are pictured in the report of the Chief 
of our Police, cannot exist in a Southern city." " It is to be hoped, now 
that those philanthropists know how miserable and degraded New Yoik 
is — and all large free cities arc equally bad — they will lurn their attention 
to the work of making it belter, before they make Charleston, Savannah, 
Mobile, and New Orleans worse," — New York Day Book. 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 479 

into cities and towns, and filling every mechanical art and 
trade, destroy each other by a competition in articles of 
which the demand is necessarily limited." 

But to what is the difference between these States 
attributable, if not to the fact of the one being a slave, 
and the other a free State ? It is said, that the one, 
though much younger, has a population more than 
double that of the other. There must be some cause 
or causes for this marked difference. There is, 
unquestionably. That it is not altogetb^r attributable, 
however, to the one alluded to, is evident from the 
fact, that other newly-settled portions of our vast 
domain, have as far surpassed Ohio, in point of rapid 
increase of population, as Ohio has Kentucky. It 
must be true, then, that the difference manifest in the 
relative prosperity of different States and sections of 
the Union, is attributable to other causes than that 
of the existence of slavery. 

What, then, are these causes in the case of these 
two States ? One very important circumstance, which 
has doubtless operated more effectually to retard the 
progress of general improvement in the State of 
Kentucky than any or all others, was the fact of her 
territory having been originally a part of Virginia. 
This circumstance, or rather circumstances growing out 
of this, gave rise to an almost unending warfare 
respecting the title of most lands within her boundary. 
Large and conflicting individual surveys having been 
made previous to her separation from Virginia, gave 
rise to a state of things of a most unfortunate and 
41 



480 STRICTURES 

discouraging cliaracter, and which were measurably 
unknown in the settlement of any other State. Indeed, 
it is matter of doubt, whether any other than the valiant 
Boone and his gallant compatriots and their posterity, 
ever would have surmounted these difficulties. The 
wealthy proprietors of those immense surveys were 
mostly citizens of other States, and being uninfluenced 
by any of the motives which proximity of residence, and 
a common feeling of interest in the general welfare and 
prosperity of the State as citizens, would have naturally 
engendered ; they waged a combined warfare against 
the hardy emigrant, which few but a Kentucky pioneer 
ever would have withstood. In a multitude of 
instances, after having penetrated the dark recesses 
of the forest, and driven the wild beast, and the wilder 
savage, from their strong holds and native haunts — 
after having surmounted all the many difficulties of a 
pioneer settler, and erected for himself and dependents 
a comfortable home, and reduced to cultivation a large 
farm ; he was compelled to pay for his lands a second, 
third, and perhaps fourth time, or forsake all, without 
" the hope of fee or reward," and, in his old age, again 
penetrate the wilderness and commence anew, with the 
same uncertainty of being able to hold what he might 
purchase, and obtain by a similar outlay of money and 
labor. 

Thus have we a brief and imperfect description of 
the difficulties against which the early settlers of 
Kentucky, and, indeed, many of the slave States, had 
to contend — difficulties which existed not in the early 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 481 

6ettlement of Ohio, and most of the other north-western 
States, where the settler derived the title of his lands 
direct from the general government. Indeed, in some 
portions of Kentucky, land litigation is not yet ended, 
and many an honest farmer knows neither the day nor 
the hour that he may be called upon to give up his 
home, or compromise with some foreign, " land-jobber" 
at a heavy sacrifice. 

The early settler of Ohio experienced nothing of all 
this. Invited to his home by the superior fertility of the 
soil, the mei-e nominal government price of $1 25 per 
acre, and the additional inducement of every sixteenth 
section being set apart for the education of his children, 
combined with the fact of the title to the land being 
indisputable ; the wonder would have been, had not the 
State increased rapidly in population. Whereas, the 
entirely different state of things in the early settlement 
of Kentucky, doubtless retarded her general improve- 
ment twice, if not thrice the length of time that 
mtervened between the adoption of the two States into 
the Union. This cause alone, other circumstances 
being equal, is well nigh sufficient to justify the actual 
difference which is obvious in the general prosperity of 
the two States. 

But there is another cause of almost equal magnitude. 
Kentucky, like most of the slave States, is decidedly, 
or has been, thus far in her history, an agricultural 
State. Her leading interests are indentified with the 
cultivation of the soil. Her wealth, consequently, does 
not tend to concentrate in cities and towns, and is not, 



482 STRICTUEES 

therefore, as fascinatingly displayed as in her more 
youthful rival, Ohio. Her population is much more 
sparse, her citizens having inherited, from their natural 
ancestors, the patriotic, hospitable planters of the " Old 
Dominion," an inherent desire to hold large bodies of 
land. Tliis peculiar feature of their organization con- 
tributes materially to affect her general prosperity. 
The more wealthy, as their means Avill permit, seek to 
enlarge their farms by purchasing the lands of their 
less fortunate neighbors ; thus driving them to other 
States, or to less eligible and valuable situations within 
their own limits. This circumstance has contributed 
largely to drain off the population. Thus, for many 
years past, the tide of emigration has been from 
instead of to the State. 

Another evil, growing out of this custom, is this : It 
is in a large number, perhaps a majority of instances, 
an injudicious investment of capital. Many have 
continued this course until their lands have increased 
far beyond their ability to cultivate them. The result is. 
that the lands are made to yield a very small per cent. 
on their nominal value, and the state is impoverished, 
not only by a decrease of her population, but by 
the resources of her rich and fertile lands being very 
imperfectly developed by an injudicious and often almost 
ruinous system in cultivation. Thus, much the greater 
portion of the- surplus capital of the State is lying 
comparatively dormant ; whereas, if those large farms 
were reduced to a size proportionate to the force em- 
ployed to cultivate them, the landholders would become 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 483 

much more numeroug, the farming population would be 
much increased, this would lead to a proportionate 
increase in the population of the towns and cities, — as 
these increased an enlarged home demand for the 
farmer's products would be created, and thus would all 
work together, harmoniously, for the common good of 
every class of citizens. 

As these land monopolies become broken up, and the 
farms reduced to a size which would enable each farmer 
to cultivate, judiciously, whatever land he might chance 
to own, the resources of the soil would be much better 
developed, and the aggregate wealth and population of 
the State would be greatly mcreased. The surplus 
resources of capitahsts would then seek investments in 
manufactures and commerce, in the development of 
the mineral resources of the State, and in the construc- 
tion of public works of internal improvement; aU of 
which, if properly managed, would prove a far more 
profitable investment of capital, and would contribute 
greatly to the general improvement and prosperity of 
the State at large. Experience has clearly demon- 
strated the fact, that capital, judiciously invested in 
manufactures, in the slave State, is as productive as in 
the free, whether the labor made use of be free or slave 
labor. Investments in bank stock, have proved 
eminently profitable: and the salutary influence of 
judiciously managed public works, upon the general 
improvement and prosperity of the slave States, is also 
fully estabhshed. These have been generally con- 
structed at a much heavier outlay of capital, than in 



.t«N»-*^--^../»-, 



484 



STRICTURES 



some of the northern free States ; not because the one 
were free, and the other slave States, but because of a 
want of experience in the construction of such works, 
the sparseness of the population, the greater natural 
difficulties to be surmounted, and the much greater 
length to which those improvements must necessarily 
be extended, to form connecting links between impor- 
tant commercial points. Yet, notwithstanding all these 
opposing circumstances, the fact is clearly established, 
that the construction of rail-roads, and other works of 
internal improvement in the slave States, may be made 
both practicable and profitable ; and we beUeve the 
time is not far distant, when these iron bands of com- 
mercial intercourse will traverse the sunny regions of 
the South, as well as the sterile plains of the North — 
when the world's thoroughfare, connecting the Atlantic 
with the great Pacific, upon which will concentrate the 
combined commerce of the earth, all tending to that 
modern Ophir, whose exhaustless treasures have already 
aroused the cupidity of the most powerful nations of 
the globe — we say, the time is not far distant, when 
this mighty triumph of American enterprise, together 
with the world's great speaking trumpet, the magnetic 
telegraph, will be extended from the Mississippi to the 
Caiifornians, from the Atlantic to the Pacific shore, 
mostly, if not wholly, upon slave territory. This we 
speak of, not boastinglj, but as a natural result of the 
present existing state of things, which the combined 
efforts of abolitionists and free-soilers, and all the hete- 
rogeneous mass of conflicting elements and powers, 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



486 



which may be brought to co-operate with them, cannot 
avert. This unnatural conflict of folly and madnesa 
may be continued, until the heart strings of the nation 
are rent assunder, and our grand confederacy dissolved. 
But whether, in this event, the South would be the loser, 
is a question which, at least, admits of discussion. She 
has within herself the elements of a great nation — a 
mighty empire, which such a result would, doubtless, 
tend rapidly to develope. And we doubt not, that, in a 
few years, she would exhibit to the world a model 
government, combining as many of the elements of true 
greatness as any that ever existed ; while her chivalrous 
citizens would possess the patriotism, the independence, 
and the invincible courage to defend her against the 
combined powers of the earth. Many other considera- 
tions might be enumerated, but these, we trust, are 
sufficiently conclusive, to prove, to the satisfaction of 
every candid, honest, unprejudiced mind, that the 
differences which apparently exist between the general 
increase, prosperity, and improvement of the slave 
States and the free, are attributable not alone to the 
existence of slavery.* 

But we are told that slavery is an evil.f So is war 
an evil. And, viewing it in the same hght, government 
may also be considered an evil, since it is an abridge- 



* For an abler and more extended examination of this subject, see 
Lecture on North and South, by Elwood Fisher. 

t "Negro Slavery no Evil. — The fearless, prompt, and always 
direct Senator from Louisiana, General Downs, in his recent speech oa 



486 



STKICTIIRES 



meht of liberty. Yet have they both received the 
sanction, and continue to exist, by the appointment of 
an all-wise and beneficent Providence. There is, 
probably, not a succession of seasons, of day and night, 
of sunshine and storm, which we cannot find some 
portion of the human family ready to denounce as evil : 
yet were they all ordained in wisdom, and are continued 
unto us in mercy. The world in which we live has 
much of evil in it, and, as rational beings, we often 
have the power of making a choice of evils. Between 
the evils of slavery, and any of the evil systems of 
abolition and emancipation which have ever yet been 
submitted to the American people, we fancy we discover 
a marked difference — that of slavery bemg an evil 
of much less magnitude — attended with fewer unhappy 



the slarery question, makes the following lemarks, replete with the gsod 
sense he always exhibits : — 

" If slavery was an evil, which he did not admit, it was not to he 
increased by diffusing it. The evil would be increased by confining it 
within narrow bounds. 

" But 60 far from considering slavery an evil, as even some southern 
men did, he deemed it a very useful institution. It was not to be 
believed that we were wiser than those who had gone before us. Had 
slavery in the United States rendered any African less happy than ha 
would be if free ? Slavery was the only step in progress ever made by 
Africa. There had been advancements everywhere on the globe except 
in Africa. Slavery in America was the only thing that had et^er bene- 
fitted unfortunate Africa. 

" But these slaves, so much sympathized with, were happy and com- 
fortable in their condition. Th^y were the gayest, most happy, best fed, 
and best clothed laboring population in the whole world. They were, in 
fact, a much happier people than their masters. They had no care for 
the future, and their labors wore iii;ht and cheerfully performed." 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



48T 



consequences to both races.* We wouid, therefore, 
act the part of wisdom, and of many evils choose the 
least — it being the abuse and not the legitimate use 
of the institutions wisely ordained by God, and sanc- 
tioned by hiiman experience, that constitute the evil 
growing out of them. 



* " Sir, if any evils have grown out of the existence of slavery, they 
have not at least affected the North. During the days of slave trade, 
■which (as I formerly had occasion to remark) was continued down to 1808, 
by New England votes in the convention, the northern ship-owners real- 
ized large profits by purchasing negroes on the coast of Africa at thirty 
or forty dollars per liead, and selling them to southern planters for several 
hundred dollars. The bringing inof these slaves caused large tracts of the 
southern country, too unhealthy to have been cleared out by white men, 
to be brought under profitable cultivation. The price of cotton has 
thereby been brought down from fifty, to ten, and even five cents per 
pound. An immense amount of capital and labor is employed profitably 
in its manufacture at the North. In England, also, not less than six 
hundred millions of dollars is thus invested, and a vast population exists 
by being employed in the manufacture. It is ascertained that at least 
five millions of white persons, in Europe and this country, get their em- 
ployment, are fed, and exist, on the manufacture of cotton alone. The 
cheap southern production of the raw material not only is the means of 
thus giving subsistence to a great portion of the population of this country 
end Europe, but is clothing the world at a cheap rate. In addition to 
cotton, rice, sugar, coffee, tobacco, and various tropical productions are 
supplied at a cheap rate for northern consumption. On the other hand, 
our slaves seldom come in competition with northern labor, and are good 
customers of its productions. While the North has derived these great 
advantages, the negroes themselves have not been sufferers. Their con- 
dition not only compares most advantageously with tiiat of the laboring 
population of the world, but is in advance of the position they have been 
able, at any time, to occupy at home. The researches of Gliddon and 
other antiquarians, show that four thousand years ago in Africa they 
were slaves, and black as they now are. Since then, in that country, 
where they were placed by Providence, and where, from peculiar con- 
stitution, they enjoy the best health, thev have existed only as savages. 
They are there continually made tlaves by the men of more intelligent 



488 



STRICTURES 



Slavery, when considered with reference to the white 
race alone, may be considered an evil. There is, 
probably, no species of property which is so troublesome, 
hazardous, and expensive, and subject to so many 
contingencies, as negro slave property. The slave 
requires constant care and attention upon the part 
of the master. He must be fed, and clothed, and 
nursed, during the years of infancy and childhood, 
and the hours of sickness. There is no passive state. 
If not actively employed, he is a bill of expense, an 
object of earnest sohcitude, for whose every overt act 
the master is held accountable. A more responsible, 
perplexing situation, can hardly be imagined, than that 
of an individual surrounded by a large number of slaves 
of all ages, who are dependent upon him, both in 
sickness and in health — in helpless infancy and 
decrepit old age, for food, clothing, and, indeed, all 
the necessaries of life. Let flood or fire, famine or 
pestilence, or whatever of the manifold evils and 



and enterprising races. Nor have they ever gotten out of the tropical 
parts of Africa, except when they were carried as merchandise. It 
remains to be proved, however, yet to the world, that the negro, any 
more than the horse, can permanently exist, in a state of freedom, out of 
a tropical region. Their decay at the North, as well as other circum- 
stances which I have not time to detail, are adverse to the proposition. 
And yet, sir, the journals of the North, while they deny that the French 
and the Germans, the most enlightened of the continental nations of 
Europe, are capable of freedom, stoutly maintain that the negro is; the 
negro, who has never anywhere, when left to himself, gotten up to the 
respectable state of barbarism which all the other races have attained, 
not even excepting our Indians in .Mexico and Peru." 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 489 

misfortunes to which human life is incident, come upon 
him or them, he alone is the principal sufferer. 

The wholesome and salutary laws and customs of the 
slave States, instead of leaving the slave, who constitute 
the laboring class, when a child of misfortune, depen- 
dent upon the cold charities of the world, or the meagre 
provisions of the poor-house, or the charity hospital, 
require that the master should minister to his necessities, 
and succor him in affliction. Often is it the case, that 
men of wealth, thus situated, become, by these mis- 
fortunes alone, seriously involved in debt, and, in some 
instances, reduced to a state of bankruptcy. Indeed, 
we have been sometimes led to regard it as a matter 
of surprise, that slaveholders did not, for their own 
sakes, turn their slaves loose upon the world at all 
hazards, and thus rid themselves of a species of property 
which was only evil and that continually. But this, 
their own inherent sense of propriety, their regard for 
the peace and safety of their families and fellow-citizens, 
and, above all, the common feelings of humanity, 
prompted by their native sympathy for the benighted 
negro, whom they know by a correct estimate of his 
mental inferiority and consequent incapability to buffet 
with the conflicting elements of life, and protect and 
secure for himself and family the necessaries of a 
comfortable subsistence, would not permit him to do. 
Remove these difficulties, and provide for the slave an 
asylum — a land adapted, in cUmate and soil, to the 
peculiarities of his nature, where he may enjoy the 
rights of citizenship and the protection of our govern- 



490 



STRICTURES 



ment ; and thousands of Christian slaveholders, 
prompted bj Christian benevolence, pure as that 
crystal fountain which emanates from the throne of 
redeeming love, will, despite the sacrifice of property, 
emancipate their slaves, and thus free themselves from 
the evils of slavery. 

But there is another evil of much greater magnitude, 
one in the estimate of which dollars and cents cannot 
bo taken into the account. This is an evil growing not 
60 much out of the institution of slavery, as out of the 
existence of the black race among the whites, whether 
in a state of bondage or freedom. The grovelling and 
corrupting tendency of the negro's mind, his proneness 
to sensual indulgence, and the unrestricted gratification 
of the baser propensities of his nature, render his 
existence, in every community, without regard to his 
relative position, an evil of the most serious char- 
acter. 

It has been alleged, by abolitionists, that the marriage 
relation is not recognized by the laws of slavery, and that 
the sacred rights appertaining thereto are violated with 
impunity. But this is not true ; custom and pubhc senti- 
ment, the parents of law, having established those in such 
a manner, that they are seldom disregarded by the slave- 
holders, except in extreme cases ; whilst, by the blacks 
themselves, they are as seldom ever regarded or 
observed. This -want of virtue and constancy, on the 
part of these people, has a most demoralizing and 
corrupting influence upon the youth, of whatever com- 
munity they exist to any extent, whether as freemen or 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



491 



bondmen. The existence of any inferior class of people 
in any community, a people "who are incapable of any 
voice in the government under which they live, between 
whom and the legitimate citizens of the country there is 
an impassable barrier, has ever been considered an evil 
of no minor consideration. 

But especially is this the case, where imbecility of 
intellect, and an unrestricted indulgence of the baser 
passions and propensities of their nature constitute the 
highest ambition of that people. Many evils, of a less 
baneful character, have attracted the attention of 
existing functionaries of the government, and been the 
subject of legislative action ; and the question remains 
to be solved. Why should not this ? 

But there is an evil abroad in our land, which, next 
to abolitionism itself, is the greatest positive evil, of a 
social character, known to an American citizen. Like 
the memorable outpourings of Divine wrath upon the 
ancient Egyptians, which passed every threshold, and 
left its blighting impress upon every family circle ; so 
the curse of which we speak is one which has a delete- 
rious influence upon almost every member of every 
community in which it exists. We allude to the 
existence of the free hlach population in the United 
States, than which a more indolent, degraded, corrupt- 
ing, miserable class of bemgs does not exist within the 
pale of civilized society. Destitute of moral principle, 
and devoid of native energy, their mode of hfe is in 
unison with the base propensities of their nature, which 
they seek alone to gratify. 



492 STRICTURES 

To elevate such a race of beings to a political 
equality with the white population, would be suicidal in 
the extreme ; it would be but applying the torch to 
that political magazine, whose inevitable explosion would 
destroy our whole grand superstructure of boasted 
liberty, and rend to atoms the noblest form of civil 
government the world ever saw. Such an attempt, we 
trust, will never receive the sanction of an American 
citizen. It is fraught with the most disastrous conse- 
quences, as all past experience clearly demonstrates. 
These people are drones upon society ; nay, worse ; 
they are a curse to every community in which they 
exist. Their existence in the slave States is an evil of 
the first magnitude. They tend to render worse than 
worthless, more than an equal number of slaves, without 
contributing one iota to the amelioration of the con- 
dition of the slave, however wretched that condition may 
chance to be. It is, therefore, the bounden duty of 
every friend of humanity, to labor for their entire 
removal from our midst. 

We repeat: Their presence is a universal evil, 
destructive alike to the peace, morality, safety, and 
prosperity of every community in which they are to be 
found, whether existing in a free or a slave State. In 
this respect, they are upon the same footing as the red 
man of the forest; but, being of a race naturally 
inferior, theh* existence in our midst is more to be 
deprecated than wovdd be that of the Indian. Extend 
to him the same degree of civilization, and inure him, 
from childhood, to the same habits of industry, and he 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 493 

will make a citizen neighbor much less objectionable, in 
every point of view, than the negro. 

The condition of the free negro, in the free States, is 
generally much worse than that of the same class of 
persons, whether free or slave, in the slave States.* 
The severity of the cUmate being much less adapted to 
natural pecuhafities of his constitution, and the price 
which he can receive for his services when disposed or 
compelled by necessity to labor — these, combined with 
the fact, that there is much less sympathy for him, and 
much less charity extended towards him by the citizens 
of the free, than of the slave States, combine to render 
his condition, in almost every respect, infinitely worse 
in the North than in the South.f 



* This whole action on the part of the North is not only in violation of 
the Constitution, but seems to be purely wanton, or originating in malice 
towards the South. It is obvious that they do not want our slaves among 
them ; because they not only make no adequate provisions for their 
comfort, but, in fact, in many of the States, have forbidden free negroes 
to come among them on pain of imprisonment, Sec. It cannot be a desire 
to liberate slaves, because they have never, to my knowledge, attempted 
to steal negroes from Cuba or Brazil. It is true, however, that having 
the right now to come amongst us both by land and water, they have 
greater advantages and immunities. For if they went into a foreign 
country, they would incur the risk of being shot or hanged, as robbers 
and pirates usually are. 

t-"FREE Negroes in the South. — Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, 
observed, in the United States Senate, on the 8th, that the free colored 
persons in South Carolina were in possession of civil rights, could hold 
property, claim the protection of the laws, &c. Many of the colored 
persons in South Carolina, he added, held slaves. 

" A.11 this exists, to a much greater extent, in Louisiana, where an 
immense amount of property is held by colored persons. There are many 
colored men in New Orleans who are worth from fifty to one hundred and 



494 STRICTURES 

We aver, without the fear of successful refutation, 
that the negro, whether bondman or freeman, has more 
true, devoted friends in the South than in the North — 
among the slaveholders than among the harping 
abolitionists ; and that his condition, regardless of the 
relation of slavery and freedom, is more tolerable in 
hands of the former than of the latter. We are aware 
that there are exceptions to all general rules ; but we 
confidently believe, that where an exception exists in the 
one case, a corresponding state of wretchedness and 
degradation may be found in the other.* 

Instances of the kind have occurred, and, if not 
prevented by physical force, would occur in hundreds 
and thousands of cases again, where, after the slave has 
been decoyed away from a comfortable home with a 
kind master, by some unprincipled fanatic, and carried 
to the land " flowing with milk and honey," as 
represented to him ; finding himself deceived in every 
essential particular, respecting the nature of the 
change, he has torn himself away from the snare into 
which he has been enticed, fought his way back with a 
fortitude and bravery amounting almost to desperation, 



fifty thousand dollars, and they are treated with infinitely more respect 
and consideration than they would receive in the Nortliern cities — they 
enjoy all the protection and rights of the law, so far as their persons and 
property are concerned, but cannot hold office or serve as jurors. In no 
free city of the Union, do free colored persons maintain a higher stauding 
than in New Orleans." — New Orleans Bulletin , 

" " This conclusion is based upon observations made during several 
years' residence iu various parts of the two different sections of the 
Union. 

42 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 495 

and returned to the home of his youth, the scat of his 
early afifections and associations, satisfied that the best 
friend he has on earth is a kind master. The reason 
■why there is more sympathy, charity, and fellow feeling 
existing in the heart of the slaveholder towards the 
negro, is obvious. Raised together from infancy, 
passed the period of childhood in the enjoyment of the 
same sports, their associations the same, their feelings 
become united, to a certain extent — there springs up 
between them a kind of natural sympathy and regard 
for each other, which is as endurmg as life itself. 
From childhood's early dawn, they both imbibe a correct 
idea of the relation of master and slave, which con- 
tinues with them through life. Let their relations 
become changed, it matters not how materially, this 
idea is never eradicated. If the slave ever forgets his 
obligations, so far as to become refractory, the punish- 
ment is summary and conclusive ; and a return to his 
duty and allegiance, restores him to favor. 

How diflferent the condition of the fugitive slave, or 
free black man of the North. Without the pale of 
civihzed society, unprotected, and unquahfied to protect 
himself, the most he can accomplish by hard labor, a 
rigid system of economy, and a frugal disposition of his 
time, is to obtain a bare and meagre subsistence. The 
chilling blasts of long, dreary winter come, or the 
burning fever of disease, and no kind hand is extended 
to shelter or afford relief. If cared for at all, when 
reduced to a state of utter helplessness, he is carried 
off to the poor-house, receiving the imprecations of 



=i''^-.'*^.;/X*'^'>*f'»* ■- 



496 STRICTURES 

those who have been taxed to excess, to maintain the 
pauperism of their own wretched victims of poverty 
and distress. 

Thus is it with the free black man, wheresoever 
dispersed. He is an outcast upon society, and liis 
name a reproach to humanity. His removal, then, 
becomes a matter of deep and abiding interest and 
importance to every friend of humanity, to every 
patriot and Christian throughout the broad expanse 
of Christendom. Much is being done by the Christian 
world for the cause of suffering humanity in all parts 
of the earth. The benighted inhabitants of the most 
distant ice-bound shore, and the remotest sea-girt isle, 
are beginning to stretch forth their hands in answer to 
the call of the Christian missionary, and the hght of 
civilization is penetrating the deepest recesses of 
heathenish darkness ; whilst a copy of the Holy 
Scriptures is being laid upon the table of almost every 
householder in Christendom. But here is a field opened 
for the exercise of pure benevolence, and true Chris- 
tian charity, in our own immediate midst. Here is 
common ground, upon which all sects and parties, the 
votaries of every variety of reUgious faith and poUtical 
policy, may meet and join hands in a great and good 
cause. As it is an evil which pervades the whole body 
politic, its removal is a work in which every American 
citizen is deeply interested. It is the first step towards 
the removal of that which many are pleased to regard 
as the blackest stain upon the bright escutcheon of 
American glory; the great national sin, the punish- 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 497 

ment of which "will render our country obnoxious to 
the severest outpourings of Divine wrath — namely : 
Slavery. 

Many ways and means have already been devised for 
the removal of the free black population. But there is 
only one correct way of removing them, and that is by 
colonization. The great scheme of the American 
Colonization Society, is the only means by which this 
evil ever can be eradicated from our land. That is a 
plan which was dictated by pure benevolence and true 
Christian charity, and founded in wisdom ; and which 
is characteristic, like the magna cliarta of American 
liberty, of the great minds that originated it. Experi- 
ence may suggest some modifications in some of its 
practical features, and doubtless will ; but yet it is the 
true and only successful policy. It may become 
necessary to select some other destination than the 
colony of Liberia, or to require the government thereof 
to be administered by a functionary chosen by a 
congress of nations. But let what changes may come 
in that respect, colonization^ a complete and perfect 
separation of the tivo races* is the only true policy. 
We lay it down as a settled principle, a fixed fact, and 
challenge the world to refute it, that the Anglo-Saxon, 
and the African races, 7iever can live harmoniously, in a 



* " It is objected, that there would be injustice and inhumanity in the 
forcible removal of the free blacks. But not greater, we conceive, than 
were displayed in the removal of the Indians. These possessed a right 
to the soil which was prior to all others ; yet did our government 
conceive it to be policy and justice to remove them. 



498 



STRICTURES 



state of political equality. If they dwell together at 
all, it must be in the relation of master and slave. 
Heaven ordained it thus, and man, in all hia wisdom 
and strength of intellect, never can change it. Nor is 
there greater injustice displayed in this arrangement or 
dispensation of divine Providence, than there is in the 
organization of human government, wherein one part 
of the human race is ordained to rule over and give 
laws to another. 

Heaven in wisdom ordained it thus, 

And man, submissive, must pronounce it just. 

We have asserted, that the removal of the free black 
population can only be effected by colonization, and that 
the plan of the American Colonization Society was 
based upon the correct principle. It may then be 
asked. Why does it not succeed ? It has been in 
operation for many years, and yet has accomplished but 
little, compared with the great work before it. True ; 
yet it has accomplished much. It has opened the way, 
" removed the rubbish," and laid the corner stone, and 
now only wants the means necessary to the completion 
of the temple. For all this time was requisite ; and it 
is a pleasing reflection to know, that the success fully 
justifies the labor and expense of the enterprise. All 
that is now wanting to complete the great work, is unity 
of action, and means to carry out what has been thus 
successfully commenced, or, in other words, govern- 
mental protection and patronage. But the work is of a 
magnitude too vast and comprehensive, to be accom- 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 499 

plished bj individual enterprise. The evil to bo 
removed is of a general character — it is a national evil, 
extending throughout the whole length and breadth of 
the land. The resources of the nation, the funds of the 
general government, the coffers of the common treasury, 
ought, therefore, to be appropriated to its removal. 
Let no one be alarmed at this — we speak not without 
precedent. Similar appropriations, for similar purposes, 
have been made by our national Congress, when com- 
posed of as wise, patriotic, and noble spirits, as ever 
glittered in the galaxy of human greatness. 

The time was, when the red man of the forest, the 
noble Indian, the proud aborigince, who derived his 
right to the soil which we now inhabit, 'by tenure of a 
grant from the God of nature, was dispersed abroad 
throughout the land. As the soil which he occupied, 
and the air which he breathed, began to be wanted by 
his superior in intellect, in science, and in art, the 
general government furnished the means, and assumed 
the responsibility of removing him to territories more 
congenial to Ids pursuits of life, and less valuable to 
her legal citizens. 

There now exists amongst us the remnant of a race. 
whose residence in our midst is not less inimical to the 
feelings and interests of the white population, than 
were the Indians. What, then, is the duty of the 
general government in regard to them ? Does it not 
come as much within the purview of its legitimate 
functions to remove in the one case as the other ? Are 
there any reasons which operated in the removal of the 



500 STRICTURES 

Indian, that may not be brought to bear, -with equal 
force, in the removal of the negro ? If so, we maintain, 
that the stronger reasons are favorable to the removal 
of the free blacks. The common feelings of humanity 
towards them, as an unfortunate people ; whose destiny 
is fixed, whose name is a reproach and a by- word, who 
can never be allowed a voice in the administration of 
the government under which they live, together with 
the demoralizing, degenerating influence which their 
existence in our midst has upon society; all point to 
them as an object worthy the attention of the general 
government. Their numbers are large ; their coloniza- 
tion, therefore, is beyond the reach of individual 
enterprise. The government, the world, have no right 
to effect its accomplishment by such means, whilst our 
citizens have the right to expect and demand it at the 
hands of the government. The latter possesses the 
power, and her resources are abundantly ample. The 
objection, that the general government has not the 
means for so great a work, is entirely futile. A small 
tithe of what is annually expended in injurious legislation 
or misguided appropriations, would carry on the work. 
Indemnification to the South for the actual losses 
sustained by her citizens,* by the aggression of Northern 



* " Compared with this great question, the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia is of little relative moment. One effect, however, 
of the anti-slavery agitation here is worthy of a passing notice. Within 
the last two years, since the matter has become serious, it has seemed 
not improbable that the seat of Government might be removed from the 
District. As this would be extremely prejudicial to the interests of the 
citizens here, many of them have so far changed in their feelings as 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



601 



fanatics, would contribute materially towards affecting 
the same great object. Add to this a tenth of the 
value of the magnificent cessions made by Virginia to 



to be willing to allow slavery to be abolished, yielding to the force of the 
pressure from the North ; besides, so many of their slaves are from time 
to time taken away by the abolitionists, as to satisfy them that such 
property here is almost worthless. A great impression was made on 
them by the coming in last year of a northern ship, and its carrying away 
seventy slaves at once. Seeing that there was no chance of getting 
Congress to pass any adequate law for their protection, as most of the 
States have done, they seemed to be forced to assent, to some extent, to 
the northern movement. Sir, it is most surprising, that the people of the 
southern States should have borne, with so little complaint, the loss of 
their slaves incurred by the action of the free States. The Constitution 
of the United States provided for the delivery of all such fugitives, and 
Congress passed an act to carry it into effect ; but recently, most, if not 
all of the northern States, have completely defeated their provisions, by 
forbidding any one of their citizens to aid in the execution of the law, 
under the penalty of fine and imprisonment, for as long a tenn usually as 
five years. There is, probably, no one legal mind in any one of the free 
States, which can regard these laws as constitutional. For, though the 
States are not bound to legislate affirmatively, in support of the Constitu. 
tion of the United States, yet it is clear that they have no right to pasa 
laws to obstruct the execution of constitutional provisions. Privata 
citizens are not usually bound to be active in execution of the law : but, 
if two or more combine to prevent the execution of any law, they ara 
subject to indictment for conspiracy, in all countries where the common 
law doctrine prevail. If the several States could rightfully legislate to 
defeat the action of Congress, they might, thereby, completely nullify 
most of its laws. In this particular instance such has been the result ; 
for, though the master is allowed to go and get his negro if he can ; yet, 
in point of fact, it is well known that the free negroes, abolitionists, and 
other disorderly persons, acting under the countenance and authority of 
the State laws, are able, usually, to overpower the master and prevent his 
capture. 

" The extent of the loss to the South may be understood from the fact, 
that ilie number of runaway slaves, now in the North, is stated as being 
thirty thousand; worth, at present prices, little short of fifteen millions of 
dollars. Suppose that amount of property was taken away from the 



502 



STBICTURES 



the general government, and the T7ork is completed. 
It is estimated, that there exist in the United States, 
about four hundred thousand free blacks; (bj the 
census of 1840, there were three hundred and eightj-sLx 
thousand, two hundred and ninetj-three.) At fifty 
dollars per head, the ratio fixed bj the American 
Colonization Society, their entire removal would cost 
twenty millions of dollars ; but as their colonization is 
not the work of a day or a year, but of a series of 
years, only a small portion of this amount would be 
required at any one time. Say it could be accomphshed 
in ten years, which is probably the shortest practicable 
period, two millions of dollars annually would be 
required ; a mere nominal sum, surely, when compared 
with the actual resources of the government. This 
amount may be raised by direct appropriations from the 



North by the Southern States acting against the Constitution : what com- 
plaint would there not be ; what memorials, remonstrances and legislative 
resolutions would come down upon ns? How would this Hall be filled 
with lobby members, coming here to press their claims upon Congress 1 
Why, sir, many of the border counties in the slaveholding States have 
been obliged to give up their slaves almost entirely. It was stated in the 
newspapers the other day, that a few counties named, in Maryland, had, 
by the efforts of the abolitionists, within six months, upon computation, 
lost one hundred thousand dollars worth of slaves. A gentleman of the 
highest standing, from Delaware, assured me the other day, that that little 
State lost, each year, at least that value of such property in the same way. 
A heavy tax to be levied on a single congressional district by abolitionists I 
" Suppose a proportional burden was inflicted on the northern States. 
How would Massachusetts bear the loss annually of one million one 
hundred thousand dollars, not only inflicted without law, but against an 
express provision of the Constitution ? ^Vc may uifer, from the complaint 
she lias made of a slight inconvenience imposed on her, by that regulation 
of South Carolina, which prevented ship-captains from carrying free negro 
servants to Charlc:iton." — Speech of T.L. CUngman, of Norlk Carolina. 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 503 

common treasury, or by setting apart a portion of the 
proceeds of the sales of the public domain, or in any 
other manner which the wisdom of our national Legisla- 
ture, or a majority of the State Legislatures may deem 
most expedient. Can it be that a government, having 
millions of acres of fine arable lands to donate to 
colonies composed of the refuse population of the old 
world ; and millions of treasure to expend in fruitless 
expeditions in search of one who, in all human prob- 
ability, is long since dead; is destitute of the means 
requisite to the accomplishment of an object involving 
every principle of humanity, and security, and protection 
to all classes of her citizens ? Might not a tithe of the 
millions of gold which are annually being purloined from 
the rich mines of California, by the mongrel races of 
other nations, for want of the natural protection of the 
government, be saved and appropriated to this very 
laudable and philanthropic object ? 

The work may be carried on through the instru- 
mentality of the American Colonization Society, or 
through any other agency Avhich may be found most 
safe, economical, and expeditious. (The pre-possessions 
of the writer are in favor of the former, from the con- 
sideration, that the Society has made the experiment, 
and fully tested the feasibility of the enterprise.) The 
transportation may be continued to the now flourishing 
(?) colony of Liberia, or it may be changed to some 
other destination, if, in the wisdom of oui* Government, 
a change should be deemed expedient. Future 
developments, in the progress of that colony, or con- 
siderations of economy or protection to the colonists, 
43 



604 



STRICTURES 



may indicate a less remote destination. It may be 
considered wise and politic, on the part of our govern- 
ment, to purchase and set apart for that purpose, the 
Island of Cuba, some portion of Mexico, Central or 
South America, or some portion of territory comprised 
•within the present boundary of our vast domain. Let 
what may be done in this respect, the emergencies of 
the case require immediate and decisive action, in relation 
to this matter. Justice to the free negro and to the slave, 
to the slaveholder* of the South, and the non-slaveholder 
of the North, to suffering humanity as presented in its 
most revolting character, imperiously demand it at the 
hands of the existing functionaries of the government. 

In our limited sphere, as a private citizen, we are 
unable to do more than suggest the idea, to mark out 
the frame work, the skeleton of a great system of 
national, moral, and social reform, which, in the hands 
of those who have the skill and ability, the influence 
and the power, to reduce it to form and practice, would 
be productive of incalculable advantages to the present 
and all future generations. Colonization, the trans- 
portation of the civilized and educated free black 
population of the United States, to the shores of Africa, 
will, undoubtedly, prove the key to the civilization and 
Christianization of that benighted, down-trodden portion 



* " There are, probably, not less than two hundred thousand free blacks 
in the slave Slates. It is estimated, that these, by association render 
worse than useless an equal number of slaves. Tlie aggregate value of 
these slaves, at an average estimate of four hundred dollars each, amounts 
to eighty millions of dollars. Thus are the people of the slave States in- 
jured by the existence of this refuse population in their midst, to an amount 
more than sufficient to colonize all the free blacks in the United States." 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



505 



of the earth. The civihzation of that people has baffled 
the energies of all modern missionary enterprises. 
Should the system of colonization, of which we speak, 
he the means of effecting this great work, this grand 
feature of the economy of Heaven, as it unquestionably 
will, all Christendom wdll be made to rejoice ; the 
children who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death? 
will be forced to clap their hands for joy, that Africa 
ever contributed of her sons and her daughters to a 
system of even nominal servitude, the final result of 
which was the spread of Christianity, and the arts of 
civilized life throughout the whole length and breadth 
of her wide-spread but uncivilized domain. Its influence 
would tell largely upon the destinies of both races, and 
upon the prosperity, well-being, and perpetuity of our 
much-cherished republican institutions. It would settle 
this vexed question, and would allay the unhallowed 
excitement growing out of it, in a manner harmonizing 
with the glory of God, and the well-being of mankind. 

The extinction of slavery has been the hobby of an 
unprincipled set of demagogues and fanatics, from time 
immemorial. Their narrow minds, and baser hearts, 
incapable of comprehending but the one idea, they have 
advocated that with a zeal and energy w^orthy of a good 
cause. To such an extreme have they carried their 
phrenzy and madness, as to materially affect the peace, 
harmony, and prosperity of our common country, and 
well nigh destroy our grand confederacy, by effecting a 
dissolution of the union of the States. Various names 
and forms, shapes and phases, has this germ of corrup- 
tion, weakness, and folly assumed, without accomplishing 



506 STRICTURES 

more than that of curtailing the wonted liberties of the 
slave, and riveting more securely the shackles of 
servitude.* Every movement "which they have made 
has tended to perpetuate the institution, and to establish, 
beyond dispute, the fact, that the removal of the so 
called evil, can never be accomplished by any of the 
means to -which they have ever resorted. Those, 
therefore, of our honest citizens, who really desire the 
removal of slavery, had better pause, reflect for a time, 
let reason usurp her dominion, and see ■whether there be 
not some other plan by ^Yhich their much-desired object 
can be accomplished. Immediate abolition and elevation 
to citizenship and political equality, never can obtain. 
It is contrary to the order of nature, and inconsistent 
■with the imperishable principles of justice and humanity. 
Nor has there ever been a system of gradual emancipa- 
tion proposed, -which would meet the exigencies of the 
case. That connecting colonization therewith, at a 
specified age, would lead to a perpetual separation of 
families, of husbands and wives, of parents and children, 
of which the annals of American slavery furnishes not 
a parallel, and which, in all its practical out-bearings, 
would lead to a state of things revolting to the feelings 
of every friend of humanity. 

Every American citizen who owns property in slaves, 
holds that property by tenure of a right granted by the 



* " Mr. Jno. L. Gary, in his pamphlet, entitled, Slavery in America, 
Briejty Considered, tells us, no doubt truly — ' that the fanatical movement 
of the abolitionists checked the progress of thing's in ]\Iai-\land ; that the 
disposition manifested in Virginia, in 1832, to hasten the extinction of 
elavery, was suddenly checked by the same cause ; so also in Kentucky.' " 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



50T 



founders of our government, the framers of the organic 
law of the nation. Our constitution, the magna charta 
of American hberty, the model political creed of the 
world, recognizes property in slaves, and was framed as 
much for the protection of him who holds tliat species 
of property, as for him whose wealth consists in lands, 
merchandise, or manufactures. The great fundamental 
p)riuciple which should constitute the basis of any and 
all governments, " That all men are created equal," was 
recognized by that memorable body, and incorporated 
into that constitution ; and we, their posterity, recognize 
it as true to the letter, both in theory and practice. 
But we, like them, should not lose sight of the principle, 
that they were legislating for the Anglo-Saxon race 
alone, and not for a combination of races ; for the 
American citizen, strictly speaking, and not for a motley 
variety of population, composed of an indiscriminate 
commixture of the civilized white man, the savage 
Indian, and the woolly- headed African negro. No such 
combination was ever contemplated by that honorable 
body, and any attempt on the part of the citizens of any 
State or territory, to form any such combination, or to 
elevate any other race to a political equality with the 
whites, we believe to come but little short of treason 
against the government. They may be permitted to dwell 
amongst us, and receive the protection of our government, 
but never to exercise the rights of citizenship. 

The slaveholder, therefore, knowing that he holds bis 
propei'ty in slaves by this right, and not ignorant of the 
fact, that the Bible recognizes the relation of master 
and slave ; and that he, therefore, is violating no 



508 



STRICTURES 



principle of our holy religion, so long as he legitimately 
uses, and does not abase the institution, -will never 
suffer his neighbor, especially if he be a citizen of a 
free State,* to say to him, " Sir, your practices are in 
violation of the laws of both God and man ; you must 
relinquish them, you must emancipate your slaves 
without ' the hope of fee or reward,' colonize them to 
Liberia, and then give them the necessary outfit for 
commencing life in their new sphere, or submit to their 
elevation to apolitical equality with yourself in our midst." 
Such a result never can obtain throughout the slave 
States ; it is unreasonable to expect it, and the more it 
is agitated the longer will the institution of slavery be 
perpetuated. No motive of this kind can ever be 
brought to bear upon the slaveholder. The deep seated 
nature of his principles, the protection of his domestic 
rights, social privileges, and individual interests, will 
cause him to resist it as long as life lasts, or reason sits 
enthroned in his breast. But when the free negro — 
that curse of the slave and the slave owner, shall have 
been removed — when the natural increase of the white 



* " Men are fond of berating their fellows for slaveholding, and waste 
their time, but very little of their money, (this they take bettor care of) in 
making a loud outcry against a distant evil, while their gaze is so elevated 
as not to take in the yoke of slavery, which grinds men in the dust at 
their very feet ; a heavier yoke than Roman, Turkish, or American slave- 
holding ever imposed. Every energy is bound down, everj,- hope crushed, 
every affection forbidden, or made but an additional weight of pain and 
anguish; everything that life has of good or of beauty, is taken from them, 
and they are left, hopeless and despairing, to die miserably. If men 
would but expend a tithe of the sympathy on these slaves which they 
profess to have for the others, a jubilee would be kept in many a hovel." 
— N. Y. Journal of Commtrac, 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 509 

population shall have become so great as to render that 
species of labor cheaper and more desirable — in short, 
■when he shall conceive it to be his interest to emancipate 
his slaves, and the general government stand readj to 
receive them at his hands, and remove them to a distant 
territory, where they may be comfortably provided for, 
and protected, then will he do it, and not before. 

Let, then, the free black population of the United 
States, wheresoever dispersed, be removed by the 
direction and resources of the general government ; and 
let it for ever after be a standing proposition^ that all 
that may, at any future time, become free, shall be 
removed in the same manner. An insurmountable 
obstacle in the way of many who would emancipate their 
slaves from choice, were that all that would be required 
of them, were they not, by the laws of their several 
States, responsible ever afterwards for their support, 
would then be removed. Each circumstance of the kind 
would have its influence in its own immediate neighbor- 
hood. Others, seeing that a way was provided for their 
removal and colonization, in harmony with the interests 
of both master and slave, would follow the example ; and 
thus would the woi'k be commenced under more favor- 
able auspices, based upon a firmer foundation, and with 
better assurances of success, than it ever has been 
commenced, or, we believe, ever can be upon any other 
plan. No other plan ever has succeeded, nor is there 
any prospect that it ever will. 

Thus have we, as we humbly conceive, developed a 
plan which will, in harmony zrith the best interests of 
loth races, when practically carried out, eflectually 



510 



STRICTURES 



remove the entire free black population of the United 
States, and all that may hereafter become free, should 
it include the whole slave population and their natural 
increase. We trust our views are not altogether unde- 
serving of a candid consideration ; and that the fact of 
their not being of princely origin and stately birth, will 
not detract from their intrinsic value. We have 
proposed common ground, and a combination of effort in 
the removal of a common evil — a broad platform, where 
all sects and parties, without regard to local feeling or 
sectional interest, can meet and unite their efforts in the 
exercise of pure benevolence and true Christian charity. 
Could this state of things be carried out, we would hope, 
ere long, to witness a cessation of that unhallowed system 
of warfare which has so long ingloriously prevailed be^ 
tween the North and South, on the subject of slavery. 
The Wilmot Proviso — that " vexed question," that 
hif'h-born, dissevering principle of strife and contention, 
which Avas conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity 
— that " double refined " element of Northern fanaticism, 
designed only for the pampered and vitiated palates of 
the dignified statesman and the fastidious aristocrat — 
that gilded hobby upon which broken down political 
hacks would fain regain " their lost estate," and ride into 
high stations — we hope ere long to see buried in the 
meshes of eternal oblivion. Incalculable are the evils 
which have already grown out of the unhallowed excite- 
ment, engendered by the untimely agitation of this 
question. It has acted as a firebrand, hurled into our 
national magazine of combustible political elements. 
Plucked from the " rectified " principles of the Garriso 



ox AEOLITIOMSM. 611 

nian school, the hot-bed of Northern fanaticism, it is but 
the transfer of the seeds of sedition and corruption from 
the humbler walks of the noisy rabble to the heart of our 
national legislature. It is no new principle, but an old 
tenet of a corrupt faction — a recognized element of a 
false political creed, under a new name and garb, and in 
a new sphere of action. Take any other tenet of that 
faction, or element of that political creed, and transplant 
it into a soil and climate as well adapted to its develop- 
ment, and watered by golden showers as congenial to its 
growth, the expansive elements of its nature will be 
exhibited in the same proportion. It requires no extra- 
ordinary powers of discernment to discover, that every 
principle involved in this issue is founded in error, and 
unwarranted by truth and justice. It is certainly a 
political paradox, without a parallel or precedent, that a 
government should, in the frame-work of her organic law, 
ordain a species of property, forbid any interference with 
the rights of private individuals, and subsequently, 
through her legal representa,tives in Congress assembled, 
enact laAvs especially interfering with those rights, by 
restricting the holders of said property to certain 
specified States and sections of our common country. 
Such a proposition is absurd, and inconsistent with the 
fundamental principles of our government. And we are 
confident, that no intelligent legislator, who did not wish 
to make political capital with the multitude, regardless 
of the imperishable principles of truth and justice, would 
for a moment contend for such a principle. This ques- 
tion, we repeat, has been productive of incalculable evil ; 
and we hope soon to see it, with all the various elements 



512 STRICTURES ON ABOLITIONISM. 

of false philanthropy — those empty fabrications of a 
dream — which have grown out of this unhallowed excite- 
ment on the subject of slavery, buried in oblivion. 

When this is done, and reason shall have assumed her 
dominion ; when the system we have proposed, or some 
other of a kindred character, shall have been established, 
and each State be left to the free exercise of her legiti- 
mate rights, and the regulation of her own domestic 
policy and institutions ; then will peace and prosperity 
again smile upon our common country. And as the tide 
of emigration and civilization shall continue to roll 
onward; like the mighty current of the majestic father 
of waters, State after State will rise up, tier upon tier, 
and knock for admission into the Union, until our whole 
vast territory, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
and from the great lakes to the golden city of the Mon- 
tezumas, shall become densely populated, and present a 
mighty phalanx — one undivided confederacy of free and 
independent sovereignties — the most powerful, chival- 
rous, patriotic, and enlightened Christian nation on the 
earth. A result which every Christian patriot and 
philanthropist must desire from his inmost soul. 



Not wishing to be considered as reckoning without our 
"host," upon the great and all-absorbing question of 
slavery, which is generally admitted to have become the 
most important- question of the age, we subjoin the 
following extracts, from the pens of Rev. A. Campbell, 
of Bethany College, Va. ; and Rev. Geo. Junkin, of 
Miami University, Ohio : two of the ablest divines of 
the age in which they live. 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



513 



SLAVERY AND THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 

[From Rev. A. Campbell.] 



This subject is engrossing much attention, and calling 
forth much inquiry in every direction. It is, with many 
humane persons, of no religious profession, and with 
professors of all parties, a very exciting subject. It is 
being pressed on my attention by many correspondents, 
and I am frequently called upon to t)pen my pages to 
a full discussion of the subject, or to give my opinion 
on the whole premises. I, therefore, conceive it to be a 
duty which I owe to myself, my Christian brethren, and 
my fellow-citizens at large, to deliver myself fully upon 
the subject, so far as the Bible arguments, jpro and con, 
are alledged by both parties, and, once for all, place the 
subject upon our pages. 

With us, the Bible is the only infallible standard, both 
of religion and humanity. The God of the Bible is the 
Lawgiver of the Universe, and he has, by his inspired 
and commissioned teachers, fully revealed his will touching 
all the duties arising from all the relations in which man 
stands to man, in the church and in the world. 

God is the author of all human relations. He has 
created the relation ot' husband and wife, parent and 
child, master and servant, magistrate and subject. He 
has also prescribed the duties of husbands and wives, of 
parents and children, of masteis and servants, of governors 
and governed, towards each other. Our moral righteous- 
ness, as well as our piety, is to be approved or condemned 
by his statutes and precepts. 



514 STRICTURES 

There is false religif)n, as well as true religion, in the 
world. There is also false, as well as true humanity. 
There is a healthful, as well as a morbid sensitiveness, on 
almost every question which may be mooted, on human 
relations and obligations. Moderation, candor, and charity, 
are, therefore, always in good keeping with our position, 
when any one of these grand subjects is agitated with 
unusual earnestness and zeal. T, therefore, with all 
deference to the opinions of others, will attempt to 
express my own, on the subjects now pressed and pressing 
upon our attention. 

The idea of master and servant, is as old as the Bible, 
and has existed since the days of Cain and Abel. It was 
said to Gain, 'being the first-born of mankind, that if he 
did well, "he should rule over his brother" Abel, and 
unto him his brother would lookup. The younger shall 
serve the elder, is one of the most natural and ancient 
oracles in the world. It was said by the inspired Noah, 
that Canaan should be a servant to his brethren. From 
this, I only argue, that the idea of servitude is coeval 
with society, antediluvian and postdiluvian. 

Two thousand years before the Christian era, the 
patriarchs were generally masters, and some of them 
.-great masters, over their fellow-men. Was it voluntary 
or involuntary, is not now the question. There was a 
necessity, in the very essence of society, for this relation. 
Orphans, and unfortunate persons, must be served, and 
they must serve in return. Such was, and is, and always 
will be, the irremediable condition of mankind. 

It is of the essence of benevolence, that widows, 
orphans, and the destitute, be provided fir; and it is 
of the essence of justice, that, when practicable, they 
should voluntarily, or involuntarily, serve in return. 
But these are only suggestions or reflections, growing 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 616 

out of the nature of socieiy. The divine law is pro- 
mulged in harmony with this condition of society, and 
based upon the recognition of it. And to this, we 
especially invite attention. 

There is but one divine and absolutely perfect code of 
social duties; one absolutely perfect constitution of society 
m the world. The civilized world, without an exception, 
without a dissenting voice, assents to this law as the 
standard of moral perfection in the social system. It was 
vvritten, and it is the only law ever literally written, by 
the hand of God. I need not say, that it was the magna 
charta of the only nation ever God placed under a 
theocratic form of government. It is, sometimes, emphati- 
cally called, the Law, or "the law often commandments." 
Its preamble is, "I am the Lord thy God, that brought 
thee out of the land of Egypt — out of the house of 
"bondage." " Therefore, hear, O Israel !" 

To one eecticn of it, we emphatically invite attention. 
It is the consumnating statute of the divine constitution : 
" Thou shall not coret thy neighbor's wife ; thou fiisalt not 
covet thy neighbor's house, nor his man servant, no)- his 
maid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that 
is thy neighbor's " propei' y. This is our first argument in 
demonstration of the divite recognition and acknowledg- 
ment of the relation of raas.sj' and servant, or of one man 
having a rightful property m another. It is, therefore, 
all-imporlant, that we underefa^^d the meaning of the 
word servant, as used by the Supreme Lawgiver and 
Judge of the world, in this case. That a man is here as 
fully recognized as property as a house, an ox, an ass, is 
indisputable. The term selected is as Cully defined as any 
other term in the precept — as the term nfe, and the term 
house. This, to some minds, may demand a word of 
jjxplanation. 



616 



STRICTURES 



Suffice it, then, to state, that there is, in the Hebrew 
language, as there was in Hebrew society, two classes 
of servants, represented by two distinct words, indicative 
of different positions, ov relations. These are, hired 
servants and bondmen. The former is represented by one 
word, and the latter by another. These are of different 
origin and meaning. 

A hired servant, in the law of Moses, is called sacheer ; 
a bondman, or bondservant, is uniformly denominated 
gehved. The latter is never called sacheer, nor the former 
gchved. Like doulos, in the Septuagint, and in the New 
Testament, gehved includes divers sorts of servants not 
receiving wages ; but sacheer indicates simply a hired 
servant. 

They are sometimes found in the same verse, in con- 
trast. Leviticus xxv. 39 : " If thy brother that dwelleth 
by thee, becomes poor, and be sold to thee, fhou shalt not 
compel him to serve as (a gehved) a hondsevvdcnt, but as 
(a sacheer) a hired servant." Again, verse 42: "He shall 
not be sold as (a gehved) a bondman;" verse 44: "Of 
the heathen thou shalt " (or mayest) " buy bondmen," 
[gehved.) 

Again : Leviticus xxv. 53: "As a yearly hired servant, 
(a sacheer) he shall be with thee." So, again, in Deuter- 
onomy XV. 18: "He hath been worth double a hired 
servant;" xxiv. 14: "Thou shalt not oppress a hired 
servant." In both these cases, it is sacheer. But when 
Moses says, (Deut. xv. 15,) "Remember thou wast a 
bondman in Egypt," he does not say thou wast a sacheer, 
but a gehved ; not a hired servant, but a slave. 

This, I give in evidence; and much more, to the same 
effect, could be given in evidence, to show that the tenth 
precept of the law of ten commandments — the standard 
of moral perfection, universally so acknowledged— 



ON ABOLITIONISM 



517 



recognized and sanctioned the idea of servitude, abso- 
lute and unlimited in duration, by not using the word 
sacheer, but the word gehved — the same word used in the 
malediction against Canaan: "A servant of servants," 
or a gehved gehvedim, " shall he be to his brethren." 
This, then, I assume, to be a settled point. Its value is 
hereafter to be considered. 

In the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, the 
contrast between the bond and the hired servant, is kept 
up by the terms oiketees and misthootos. The former, as 
well as doulos, being originally applied to bondservants, 
and the latter to hired servants. The oiketees was one 
that belonged to the house, or family; the viistTwotos was 
one that served for wages, whether the period was long 
or skort- the other served as a bondman, and had the 
privileges of the family protection and support. 

It is worthy of remark, in this place, that the term 
servant, in our language, when applied to apostles, 
prophets, or workers for Christ, is never misthotos, 
because they are not hirelings, or free servants: they 
were the Lord's bondmen, and are, therefore, called 
d&uloi, or oixetai. They held no property in themselves ; 
they were, while free in one sense, the Lord's bondmen 
in another. But we return to the moral law and Jewish 
dispensation, for Biblical and rudimental ideas of the 
subject of servitude. 

The last precept of the decalogue, and the first precept 
of the judicial or political code, must be compared, in 
order to decide the proper interpretation of both. We 
shall, therefore, place them in juxtaposition, side by side, 
that they may reciprocally define and illustrate one 
another. They read as follows: "Thou shalt not covet 
thy neighbor's house ; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
wife, nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his 



518 STRICTURES 

ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's." 
Ex. xxi. 2. "If thou buy a Hebrew servant [gehved), 
six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go 
out free, for nothing. If he come in by himself, he shall 
go out by himself; if he were married, then his wife shall 
go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, 
and she have borne him sons and daughters, the wife and 
children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by 
himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my 
master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free, 
then his master shall bring him to the magistrates; he 
shall also bring him to the door, or to the door post, and 
his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he 
shall serve him for ever." 

Here, then, commences the institution of servitude 
among the Jews, under a theocracy. I need not say 
that the sun gives light. As little need to say, that the 
law of servitude was "holy, just, and good." This is 
Hebrew servitude, and neither Greek nor Roman, neither 
Anglican nor American slavery. The Hebrew servant, 
here rendered by the seventy, into Greek, by paida 
(from pais, a boy) was, likely, a young man. Being, it is 
presumed, a minor, he is sold for six years. Meantime, 
he falls in love with one of his master's female servants, 
and is constitutionally married, while yet a gelived — a 
bond servant. The day of his freedom arrives ! What a 
dilemma! He has a wife, and children; his by nature, 
and his master's by right — by a jure divino. Whicli 
shall he choose — ^freedom or slavery] 

A modern abolitionist would say, "Run away, my 
good sir, and take your dear wife and children with you. 
God has made all men free and equal. Your master took 
the advantage of you, and now, heartless tyrant that he 
-is, be will keep your wife, and your dear babes, in 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 519 

perpetual slavery, which, I am sure, you love as much 
as he loves his. There is no moral wrong in this. You 
were not of mature age and reason when you got 
married, as very few such slaves as you are. Take up 
your couch, sir, and walk. You are getting no wages 
here: you will be a slave all your days. Can you have 
your ears bored to the door post, and carry to your grave 
the brand of your cowardice and infamy? Will you make 
yourself a slave for ever 1 If bored, your doom is fixed." 

His master having treated him with all humanity, being 
one that feared God, and wrought righteousness, he 
thanked his new friend for his benevolence, and said, 
" I cannot leave my wife ; she was given me by her 
master, and he has done well for her, for me, and for 
our children. I cannot leave him — [ cannot leave them." 
His ear was bored with as little pain as a lady suffers for 
the admission of a golden ring, and he and his offspring 
became servants "for ever." 

Such was the first statute of the political code of the 
commonwealth of Israel, enacted Anno Mundi 2513 ; 
before Christ, 1492. And such is the first commentary 
on the tenth commandment — the first law of the new 
constitution, under which God placed the elect nation 
of Israel. 

Such will be called the bright side of the picture. 
There is, however, no picture of one color : that is 
physically and morally impossible. Nor is there any 
picture without shade. And such is the present picture 
of all society — the best that exists on earth. 

It will be said, and said with truth, that this is a case 
of voluntary servitude. But only as I have presented it. 
It is, indeed, a choice of evils. 

Suppose this said slave had been married the first year 
after his master bought him, to a young female servant, 



520 



STRICTURES 



the property of his master, and that he was a forward, 
energetic, independent, and noble-minded slave. What 
then ? He asks his wife and children at the commence- 
ment of the Sabbatical year. His master refuses to give 
him his wife and children. Too hard, indeed — tyrannical, 
cruel ! Is it not? Yes, say A., B. and C. But, responds 
his master, his wife was mine, and I cannot part with 
her. Her mistress loves her, and cannot do without her. 
I cannot afford it. His labor has not countervailed my 
expenditures upon him and her, and their children. I do 
no wrong, either on the score of humanity or of justice. 
God enacted the law. He made me master, and him my 
bondservant. I can do better for him and them, than 
they can do for themselves, and serve myself, too, better 
than without them. We are all happier together than 
we could be apart. I am the slave, he the freeman. I 
have to care for him; he has no care for himself, his 
wife, or children. If he were able to compensate me, I 
might give him his wife and his children; and if he 
chooses to do so, he will sooner obtain the means under 
my direction, and by my capital, than he could otherwise 
do. It is a benevolent and a just law, and I will abide 
by it. Such was the first law of the kingdom of Israel, 
under the theocracy, and such would be a rational and 
moral view of it. Other statutes on this subject, found in 
that law, will prepare our minds for the consideration and 
comprehension of the Christian law, the higher law, and 
the Fugitive Slave Law of the present crisis. 

But it is neither my duty nor my inclination to defend 
it. It is enough to say, that it was God's own enactment, 
as much as the law of ten commands, but it is not of the 
same compass nor perpetuity. It was a local and tempo- 
rary arrangement. Its value to us consists, chiefly, in 
the recognition of what may, in the judgment of God, be 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



521 



consistent with moral rectitude and the purity of the 
di\-ine law. The God of the New Testament is the 
God of the Old. It is a maxim, universally conceded, 
that, "what is just in little, is just in much." That 
which may be done rightfully for a day, a month, or a 
year, may be done for a longer period. It is theft to 
steal one cent, as essentially theft, as to steal ten thousand 
dollars. A person who can rightfully hold property in a 
man for one year, or five, may rightfully extend the 
term indefinitely. Christianity is not more just than 
Judaism. But it is yet premature, to apply the principle 
developed in this statute, as it would be to defend it, 
being a divine enactment, "We have the whole Bible 
open, law and gospel, too. 

We greatly respect an intelligent, conscientious, and 
generous philanthropy. We will ever do homage to a 
pure philanthropist. But there may be a morbid, sickly 
philanthropy, as well as a rational, and sound philan- 
thropy. The religious sometimes become superstitious : 
the generous are not always just. And professed 
philanthropists have, not unfrequently, been more fanatical 
than benevolent, and more in love with their own opinions 
than with the rights of man. 

But, with the patient and generous charities of my 
readers, I will endeavor to develop the Christian duties 
and obligations on the whole premises, now being laid 
before the public, on the higher law, the Fugitive Slave 
Law, and every other law allied to the present question — 
the great question of the age, so far as our national 
interests and honor are concerned. A. C. 



522 STRICTURES 



PROPOSITION. 

[From Rev. George Jankin.] 



The Hebrews were permitted, by their law, to buy servants 
from the heathen ; to hold them in perpetual servitude ; 
and to transmit them as hereditary property to their 
children. 

This is a compound proposition, and may be broken 
down into three distinct parts. 

1. They were permitted to buy servants, male and 
female, from the heathen. Exod. xii. 44, — " Every 
man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast 
circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof." This is 
decisive as to men servants. 

Second proof Lev. xxv. 44-46, " Both thy bond- 
men and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be 
of [from, in Hebrew] the heathen that are round about 
you, of [from] them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. 
Moreover, of [from] the children of the strangers that do 
sojourn among you, of them shall you buy, and of their 
families, that are with you, which they begat in youi' 
land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall 
take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to 
inherit them for a possession j they shall be your bondmen 
for ever: but over your brethren, the children of Israel, 
ye shall not rule one over another with rigor." This 
passage is most conclusive as to the first subdi\a9ion. 
It also meets the second, viz : that the servitude is 
perpetual, " they shall be your bondmen for ever — Le 
Olau7n." And it is equally pertinent to the third. They 



ox ABOLITIONISM. 528 

could transmit these slaves, as hereditary property, to 
their children. But, here, note particular : 1. They are 
property, "possession." It is the same Hebrew word, 
as that used in v. 41, to describe the landed estates to 
which the Israelites returned at the Jubilee, " and unto 
the possession of his fathers shall he return," It is the 
same used to describe the Redeemer's right in his 
redeemed people. Psalm ii. 8, " I shall give * * * the 
uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." It 
is the same used to describe Abraham's interest in 
the field of Ephon and the cave of Machpelah, after 
he paid for tliem, when " the field and the cave that is 
therein were made sure unto Abraham, for a possession 
of a burying place, by the sons of Heth." In short, 
this word is invariably used, to signify ownership in 
landed estate — not transitory but permanent possession. 
Let men, therefore, criticise as their fancy directs, as 
to men and women being viewed and treated as 
property ; God's word says, unequivocally, " they shall 
be your possession." 

But, it will be said, this is horrible ! Human beings 
bought as property, and held as a possession permanent ! 
Well, abhor it, then, if it is horrible. But, there it is 
on the sacred page. I have not asserted it, it is God's 
assertion. I have not said it is rig7it. Neither, as I 
suppose, has God affirmed it to be right. All I affirm 
is, that God's law permitted it to Israel. If you cannot 
endure it, with God be your controversy : and at his 
word be yet more horrified. For, 2. This possession 
is perpetual — Le Olaum, for ever shall they be your 
bondmen. It is a bondage durable as the life of the 
parties. Yea, more horrible still ! 3. At the death 
of the master who bought the slaves, they do not go 
out free — they pass down as an inheritance to bis 



624 STRICTURES 

children : they stand in all the legal relations of real 
estate. As such, the terms of the law speak of them. 
It is the same word as is used, Num. xxxiii. 54, " Ye 
shall divide the land by Jot for an inheritance,'* etc. 
And xxxiv. 13, " This is the land which ye shall inherit 
by lot." And Abraham inquires, " How shall I know 
that I shall inherit it?" 

Such is the condition of heathen slaves under the 
Mosaic Law. Most unhappy men ! Awful state of 
degradation ! Hopeless bondage to them and to their 
children after them! 

But, now, is it not obvious, that the dreadfulness of 
their state depends very much upon incidental circum- 
stances? Suppose they fall into the hands of "believing 
masters," such as Paul speaks of, who will be kind to 
them, and teach them the way of salvation through the 
Messiah, what is there so fearful in their condition 1 
Look what Isaiah says, ch. xiv. 2, concerning heathen 
people : " And the people, [of God] shall take them and 
bring them to their place ; and the house of Israel shall 
possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and 
maidens." Assuredly, when the grace of God touches 
the hearts of these slaves, and they become God's freed- 
men, their condition is infinitely better than that of their 
brethren according to the flesh, who are afar off from 
God, and free in a physical sense. " I had rather be a 
door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in 
tents of wickedness." 



ON ABOLITIOXISM. 525 



PROPOSITION. 

[From Rev. George Junkin.] 



That God has nowhere, in the Old Testament, prohibited 
slavery. Titer e is no command to this amount, " Blasters, 
let your servants go Jree." The relation of master and 
slave is nowhere condemned as a sin and forhidden to 
exist. 

The position here taken, is expressed in three forms, 
to prevent, if possible, all misapprehension. If any man 
affirm the opposite, let him adduce the proof. If the 
relation of master and servant, in perpetuity or for life, 
be, in itself, and apart from all cruelties and abuses 
of power, a hoiTible sin in the sight of God, let us 
have the text from the Old Testament to condemn it. 

Permit me, here, to throw out a caveate against 
misconstruction and misrepresentation. Although it is 
not our business, more than our opponents, to justify 
the ways of God to men, yet, I remark, God has no- 
where sanctioned slavery. To sanction, is to approve 
of and command as a thing that is right, and that ought 
to be. Except in eases of forfeiture of liberty, God has 
not commanded — has not made it obligatory upon man, 
to reduce his fellow to involuntary bondage. On the 
contrary, I take the distinction before alluded to, that 
the Bible tolerates slavery. Now, toleration is hearing 
with — enduring a thing; and it implies, that the thing 
is viewed as an evil. Job tolerated his boils, and the 
foolish behaviour of his wife. We tolerate evils that 
cannot be uistantly removed. All wearisome labor, of 



526 STRICTURES 

body or of mind, is an evil. All petulant, peevish, and 
vexatious conduct, is an evil. The perpetual harrassraent 
to which this Synod has been exposed, from year to 
year, by the Anti-Slavery party, is an evil, hard to be 
endured; yet the majority of Synod have tolerated it — 
you have fought against it, as Napoleon said of the 
Russians at the battle of Smolensk, " with passive 
bravery." 

But I hear our tolerated brethren say, how long must 
this evil of slavery be tolerated? Are we never to 
see the end of it? Must all the light of the New 
Dispensation be spent in vain ? Cannot this dark spot 
be illuminated by if? Will you plead for its everlasting 
toleration. 

Be patient, Brethren ! God has tolerated this dreadful 
evil more than thirty centuries of years. And he has 
tolerated yet worse evils. He has tolerated you and 
us, with all our sins and corruptions upon us; with 
all our unkind speeches, and hard sayings, and heart 
burnings, and jealousies, and anger, and wrath, and 
murmurings against God. He has borne with us in 
our censures upon his Word and his providence, for 
this very spirit of t(jlerance, to which we are indebted 
for an existence out of hell. Why does he not instantly 
cut off all evil from the earth ; either by cutting us off, 
(»r by making us instantly and perfectly holy? "Nay! 
but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God V 

Be patient, Brethren, with me, and with God. Let 
us proceed to the New Testament. What are its 
teachings on the subject of slavery ? If slavery be the 
master sin of our world ; if all other evils sink into 
insignificance, in comparison of this giant crime ; if this 
feai-ful and desolating sin — this soul-damning sin, as 
brethren in this Synod deem it, abounded under the 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



527 



Old Testament, surely the remedying of it will form 
a prominent feature of the New Economy. Surely 
when the Redeemer comes to cleanse the sanctuary, 
and to purify the altar, which have, since the days of 
Gibeon's enslavement, been polluted by slave labor, he 
will, at least, drive away all slave labor from the temple 
and the altar. He will speak a plain and unequivocal 
language. He will make it to be clearly known, that 
slavery is no longer to be tolerated in the Church of 
God. If Jesus be an abolitionist, in the modern sense, 
surely his new revelation will for ever wash out the foul 
stain of slavery. Mr. Moderator, what think you ? If 
our opposing brethren had written the New Testament, 
or any one book of it, would you not expect to find a 
strong, and plain, and unequivocal testimony against 
slavery, in it? 

But now, sir, on the contrary, I fearlessly affirm, that 
there is not a sentence in the New Testament, which, 
either expressly, in so many words, or by fair and just 
constiuction, forbids slavery. To avoid misconception, 
let me divide this compound proposition. I then 
declare : 

I. That tliere is not a sentence in the New Testament, 
u-hich expressly forbids the having and the holding of a 
slave. 

II. That there is not a sentence in the New Testament, 
ichich, hy foir and just interpretation, according to the 
rules of grammar, gives ground for the logical irference, 
that the simple holding of a slave, or slaves, is incmisistent 
with Christian profession and Christian character. 



The proof ftf the affirmative lies on the affirmant ; 
let the man, who elects himself to controvert either of 



528 



STRICTURES 



these, present his proof. But, lest none shoulci be 
forthcoming, let us see how near an approximation may 
be made toward establishing these propositions in this 
negative form. Should any person affirm, that between 
the hours of six A. M. and six P. M. on the 19th of 
September, 1843, the present speaker had kidnapped 
a slave off a steamer lying at the quay in Cincinnati, 
I could prove a negative by proving an alibi — by 
proving my continual presence, during that period of 
time, in this or the adjoining village. Let us look into 
the New Testament for abolitionism, and see how far an 
alihi can be supported. 



1. My first subordinate 'proposition here, is, that the 
Greek zvord, doulos, usually translated servant, properly 
and commonly means a person held to service for life — a 
slave. 

This word occurs, according to Schmidius, about one 
hundred and twenty-five times in the New Testament. 
Of these, omitting the parallel places in the last 
three Gospels, the following is a general classification, 
viz : — 

1. It is applied to servants of God and of 

Christ, 

2. To servants of men, such as the house- 

holder and the owner of the vineyard, 

3. To the king who made the supper, and 

to liim who took account of his 
servants, ------ 10 

4. To servants of sin and Satan, - - 6 

5. To the servant of the centurion, Matt. 

viii. 5, 1 

6. To Christians, as servants to each other. 

Matt. XX. 27, 1 



34 times. 



34 



OK ABOLITIONISM. 



529 



7. To Christ, as God's servant, Phil. ii. 7 1 times. 

8. To Judaizing Christians, Gral. iv. 7, 1 " 



In all, - 88 " 

leaving about 37 as parallels. 

Let as noAV see, whether, in all these, the idea of 
continuous, perpetual servitude be not included. 

The first class — the sei-vants of God and of his Christ 
— are life servants; bound under the most absolute 
authority to honor and obey and submit to his com- 
mands. They profess so to be. They have come near 
to the door-post, and their ears have been pierced through 
with the arrows of his conviction, and they are his Jbr ever. 
Moreover, they were unwilling, when he bought them with 
a price, and they were unwilling until he changed them 
by his law, and made them " both to will and to do of 
his own good pleasui'e," They are servants for ever, 
"under the yoke," — "take my yoke upon you." 

Passing the second class, as the one in controversy^ 
we notice the third, Matt, xviii. 23, &c., and xxii. 3, &c. 
The master, in the former, like many in our day, had 
entrusted much of his property to his servants, to be 
employed for his advantage ; and thus, one of them 
was found to have acted very unfaithfully — he had 
squandered his lord's money. His master, just as 
masters now do, commanded him to be sold, and his 
wife and children. Now, if do-ulos does not express the 
relation of slavery — if it mean here a hired servant, how 
can we understand the trans9,ction ? Where is the law 
to sell a hired servant 1 And, if it be said, he was sold 
under the law, which makes indebtedness a crime, 
lendering the debtor obnoxious to sale, then we have 
slavery recognized. Take it either way, then, you have 
the relation of perpetual servitude. 



530 



STRICTURES 



The evidence is equally plain, that the servants of the 
king, in waiting upon the marriage supper, were not 
hirelings, but perpetual servants. And here we may 
observe, as was remarked of the Hebrew terms, the Greek 
word misthotos, means a hired person, one employed to 
work for wages, for a period long or short, as the contract 
may be: such was the kind of service performed on 
Zebedee's fishing boat. James and John " left their 
father, Zebedee, in the ship, with the hired, servants." 
And the Saviour speaks of this kind of labor as not so 
reputable and trustworthy as the doulos ; John x. 12, 13: 
*' But he that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose 
own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth 
the sheep and fleeth. The hireling, misthotos, fleeth 
because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep." 
It would seem that the doulos, the permanent servant, 
was the more trustworthy. Accordingly, it is universally 
agreed, that the servants in the parable of the supper, 
represent the gospel ministers — permanent officers in 
Christ's house, who would, therefore, be very unsuitably 
represented by the relation of a hireling, a temporary 
servant, working for wages. Besides, the kind of service 
at this feast, is just such as slaves, or permanent servants 
are usually employed at. Farther, the invited guests 
killed some o the servants, which it is not conceivable 
they would have done, had they been hired persons. 
These things, in connection with the fact, that the histo- 
rian does not use misthotos — a word uniformly applied to 
the temporary relation of a hired person, as faithfulness 
to historical verity required, if the relation had been 
temporary — these, I say, must convince the candid, that 
doulos means the permanent relation of a life servant. 

The fourth class relates to slaves of sin and of Satan, 
John viii. 34: "Verily, verily, 1 say unto you, whosoever 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 531 

committeth sin is the servant, doulos, of sin. And the 
servant abideth not in the house [the family apartment] 
for ever: but the son abideth ever. If, then, the Son 
make you free, ye are free indeed." Here the doulos is 
contradistinguished from the son, and also from the free 
person. So, Rom. vi. 17, "God be thanked, that ye were 
the servants, doulos, of sin." And, 2 Pet. ii. 19, " While 
they promise them liberty, they, themselves, are the 
servants, douloi, of corruption: for of whom a man is 
overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage;" — he is 
made a doulos. Here, again, servant is contrasted with 
free. Besides, there is express reference to the ancient 
and universal custom of holding and accounting prisoners 
of war as slaves. Men are taken captive by the devil, 
and are the servants of their captor. We need not here 
dwell, to show that it is a base bondage under which men 
are held, to sin and Satan, and that it is without limit in 
itself — it is designed by the master, and assented to by 
the slave, that he shall serve for ever; and so it will 
prove in every case where our Redeemer does not inter- 
fore, and deliver, by his almighty power, the poor slave 
from his cruel and yet voluntary bondage. 

Case fifth, is that of the doulos of the Roman centurion 
or captain. That slavery prevailed all over the Roman 
Empire at this time, and that it was a most absolute and 
degraded slavery, wherein the master liad the power 
of life and death at his own option, will not be contro- 
verted by any, whose reputation for scholarship entitles 
them to any notice at ail. We cannot, surely, be expected 
to prove that the captain's servant was a slave. For a 
man to assert the contrary, places him hors du co/nbat. 

Case sixth, relates to the services required from one 
Christian to another, and they are undoubtedly permanent, 
and of perpetual obligation. 



532 STEICTURES 

So the seventh, an insulated instance, describes the 
relation of Christ to God the Father. That it is 
permanent, and for life, is obvious, and involves absolute 
submission in all things. 

The other insulated case is, that of the judaizing 
Christian, Gal. iv. 7, who makes the ceremonial law a 
yoke of bondage, and himself a slave to it. 

Thus, if there is any exception to the absoluteness and 
permanency of the obligation, and the servitude, expressed 
by this term, doulos, it must be found in the second class ; 
all the others imply entire subjection, and that without 
limit, as long as the related parties exist. 

The servants of the householder, who had sowed good 
seed in his field, and of the man who delivered his 
talents for improvement, are so similar to the case of the 
marriage supper, that the same reflections are mainly 
applicable to these. So, also, of the owner of the vine- 
yard, Matt, xxi, 35, &c. The only other case in the 
Gospels, that of the priest's servant, whose ear was cut 
off, may easily be understood, by reference to the laws 
already cited, permitting the priests to buy servants: 
the others, it is not my intention to go over, in the 
detail. 

It would be tedious, and would lead to the conviction, 
that, without one exception, in all the contexts, the idea 
of absolute and permanent bondage to service, would be 
found to harmonize best, with the drift and meaning of 
the passages respectively. Persuaded I am, the case 
never will be made out, where doulos, necessarily means 
a temporary servitude, at the option of the servant. 
Many of the remaining passages, will, however, come up 
in other connections. Meanwhile, I rest in the belief, 
that the great mass of unprejudiced minds, must admit, 
that doulos properly means a slave. 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 633 

Let us, however, make this clear to a demonstration, 
by the argument from contrast. If we find two words, 
used in opposition to each other, the meaning of one 
being ascertained, will forcibly illustrate that of the other. 
Now, freeman and slave are such terms — they express 
opposite ideas. He who is free, cannot, at the same 
time, and in the same respect, manner, and sense, be a 
Blave. In different senses, such opposite terms may 
agi'ee. A man may be a slave to tobacco and whisky, 
and yet a freeman, in a civil sense. Still, freedom and 
slavery are opposites; and if I shew that to be fi-ee 
means a state wherein a man is under no obligation to 
work or labor for another — the other has no power or 
claim over him, so as to compel him to work ; and if I 
shew that this state is contrasted to another, as its 
opposite, then that other is a state of slavery and 
bondage. 

Here let me refer to the cases already cited, for 
another purpose: John viii. 34, "He that committeth 
sin, is the doulos or servant of sin ; but if the Son make 
him free, then he is free indeed," Here, doulos and 
elcutheros — a slave and a free man — are contrasted. 
Again, in Rom. vi. 17, " Ye were the doulm, servants 
of sin; but being made free;" here is the same contrast. 
So also, 2 Pet, ii, 19, "While they promise them liberty, 
elcutJieria, they themselves are the douloi, slaves of c(jr- 
ruption," 1 Cor. vii, 21, 22, "Art thou called, being a 
servant, doulos, care not for it: but if thou mayest be 
made free, use it rather. For he that is called in the 
Lord, being a servant, doulos, is the Lord's freeman — 
rather freed man — apeleutlieros ; likewise, also, he that is 
called, being free, deutlieros, is Christ's servant, dmdosy 
Here, the contrast is plain and direct, and three times 
repeated. 1 Cor. xii. 13, "Whether we be Jews or 



634 STRICTURES 

Gentiles; whether we be bond or free, douloi or eleu- 
tJieroi ;" Gal. iii. 28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, 
neither bond nor free, doulos nor eleuthcros ;" Col. iii. 11, 
"There is neither bond nor free, doulos nor eleutheros;" 
Rev. vi. 15, "And every bondman and every freeman: 
every doulos and every eleutheros ;" Rev. xiii. 16, "And 
be causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free 
and bond, eleutherous and doulmis" Rev. xix. 18, "And 
the flesh of all men, both free and bond, eleutheroi and 
douloi, both small and great." 

Thus, by an accumulation of evidence, even to weari- 
ness, it is demonstrated, that doulos means a slave, as 
certainly as eleutheros means a freeman. Here are twelve 
distinct and unequivocal instances of contrast. I take it, 
then, as most conclusively proved, that doulos properly 
means a slave — a person under absolute authority for life, 
to a master. 

2. The second subordinate proposition with an inference, 
is., that Paul advises servants to abide quietly in their 
condition. This he could not do if the relation of master 
and slave was, in itself, a sin. 

1 Cor. vii. 20-24, "Let every man abide in the same 
calling, wherein he was called. Art thou," &c., as above. 
"Ye are bought with a price, be not ye the servants of 
men. Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, 
therein abide with God." 

Here, note, 1. This is a spiritual call — that inward 
vocation of the Holy Ghost, whereby a man is made to 
hear and to obey the Gospel, in a spiritual sense. He 
who is thus called, is a converted man. But there is a 
modified sense, in which the word is used to signify a 
man's employment — his state and condition in this world's 
affairs. And the Apostle indulges a play upon this sense. 



ON ABOLITIONISM. bdo 

In verse 17, he settles the principle: "But as God hath 
distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every 
one, so let Mm walk. And so ordain I in all the churches." 
The gospel does not come to break up the social relations. 
If a hired girl is converted, it does not hence follow, that 
she must sit at the table, and her employer take turns 
with her in the house-work, and table-waiting. Paul was 
not a leveler in this respect. But, let every one pursue 
his business honestly. " Is any man called, being circum- 
cised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called, 
being uncircumcised? let him not be circumcised." These 
outward circumstances are trifles. What a man's business 
is — what his condition in life, is a small matter, if only 
he has the spiritual vocation. 2. Among the called, at 
Corinth, were found some servants — doulous — slaves. 
Then sprang up the question: If I am called into the 
service of Jesus Christ, can I any longer be obedient to 
an earthly master ? Can a man serve two masters? If I 
have taken Christ's yoke upon me, how can I be, and 
continue, a doulos to my old master who bought me ? 
Now, it is easy to see, that if Paul had preached 
abolitionism, there would have been directly a slave 
insurrection at Corinth. If he had decided, that conver- 
sion to Christianity nullified the master's right to control 
his slave, and made him free, it would have brought 
Christianity into direct collision with the civil and domestic 
relations of the whole Roman world. But Paul was no 
abolitionist: he would not interfere, in the least, with the 
master's authority. He had, a little above, decided in 
favor of another social relation. Mai'riage, though 
consummated in a pagan state, he says, is binding, 
even after one of the parties has been converted to 
Christianity. The question had been raised, Can I be 
the spouse of Christ, and also of a pagan husband at the 



536 



STRICTURES 



same timel Certainly, says Paul, the one is spiritual, 
the other a natural — -moral relation: "Let not the wife 
depart from her husband :" so, here, let not the servant 
depart from his master. This is the third remark : The 
relation is not to be renounced — " Let every man wherein 
he is called, therein abide." If he is a doulos, let him 
remain contented : he can be a slave in regard to temporal 
things; and, yet, a freeman in regard to spiritual things. 
There is no necessary collision between the claims of the 
two masters. If your earthly master acts uprightly, he 
will never require you to do an act forbidden by your 
heavenly master. But should such case occur, why, then 
obey God, and suffer whatever punishment man chooses 
to inflict. 4. Manumission was often practised in the 
Roman and Grecian woild. Paul advises the servant, 
if his master offer to manumit him, to accept his freedom 
with gratitude — "use it rather." When grace touched 
the master's heart, and especially if his conversion, as 
doubtless was often the case, was brought about by the 
patient and quiet obedience, and manifest improvement 
of his converted slaves, it cannot be doubted, he often 
freed his servants: and this is God's plan of abolition. A 
person who, in the phrase, "use it rather," can find a 
warrant for a slave insurrection — for robbery, theft, and 
murder, gives melancholy evidence, that he himself is the 
slave of his own pride and wicked passions. 5. Paul 
points out the method of the spiritual freedom — it was by 
purchase : " Ye are bought with a price, be not ye the 
servants of men." Most violently and blindly has this 
passage been abused, to the encouragement of slave 
insurrections ; " be not ye the servants of men " — this, 
we, Mr. Moderator, have heard the subject of song here; 
contrary to the obvious, plain meaning of the whole 
context. It has been time after time harped upon, as 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 58.7 

evidence, that slaves are forbidden to serve men ; whereas, 
the whole drift of the context enjoins submission. '• Yt^ 
aie bought with a price.'' Now, in what sense 1 Is it not 
undeniable, that the price here is Christ's blood ? And 
must it not follow that the servitude into which this 
spiritual purchase brings them, is a spiritual servitude ? 
Do they not take Christ's yoke on them? And yet, these 
brethren insist on it, that "be not ye the servants of men," 
is a natural servitude ! " Don't obey your masters 
according to the flesh; resist them, they have no right 
to command you, and you do wrong in obeying; 'be not 
ye the servants of men.' " Did you ever hear of such 
horrible perversion ] Can this be the true meaning, 
when other passages, so numerous, command the very 
contrary ? " Servants obey your masters." We must say, 
such a construction is not only violent, but it is disin- 
genuous ; and no man could, for a moment, allow himself 
in it, but that the heat of excitement, and the warmth 
of controversy, blinds the mind, and hurries the zealot 
over all rules of reason and of right. No commentator 
ever entertained such an idea : until modern abolitionism 
invented it, the world, I presume, was ignorant of such a 
construction. But it is a fair sample of the logic of 
excited feeling. Paul urges the doiclos to abide content 
in his condition; because, though a servant of man, he is 
Christ's freed man — a spiritual freeman, but a slave 
civilly. But he must not abide the doulos of man, 
say these brethren — must not be civilly a slave; because 
he has been spiritually bought with a price. The apostle 
may contradict himself, but he must not teach the duty 
of servants to obey their own masters ! When he says, 
"Be not ye the douloi of men," he must not mean 
spiritually, but naturally ! ! 



538 STEICTURES 

3. The third subordinate proposition, with an inference. 
— The New Testament recognizes some viasters as good 
men — true and faithful believers : therefore, the relation 
of master and slave may exist, consistently with Christian 
character and profession. 

Proof 1. — Matt, viii. 9, 10 ; " The centurion answered 
and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come 
under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant, 
doulos, shall be healed. "When Jesus heard it, he 
marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily, I 
say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not 
in Israel." Here is a slaveholder whose faith stands 
above suspicion. But we have been told that every 
man who is guilty of slaveholding, if he die without 
repenting of this sin, will go to hell! How differently 
the Saviour and some of his disciples judge ! 

Proof II. — By Eph. i. 1, we learn, that the epistle is 
addressed " to the saints which are at Ephesus, and 
to the faithful in Christ Jesus." And by vi. 9, we learn, 
that among these faithful brethren are masters : " And 
ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing 
threatening : knowing that your Master, [ChristJ also, is 
in heaven ; neither is there respect of persons with him. 
Finally, my brethren," &c. Thus slaveholders are 
recognized as faithful believers ; and no order is given 
to cease to be slaveholders. 

Proof III. — 1 Tim. vi. 2; "And they that have 
believing masters, let them not despise them, because 
they are brethren ; but rather do them service, because 
they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit." 
Here the slaves, douloi, are commanded to submit, 
because their masters are believers — faithful and beloved 
brethren, partakers of the grace of our Lord. 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



639 



Proof IV. — Philemon 5 ; Paul, addressing this slave- 
holder, says he had heard " of thy love and faith, which 
thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints." 

So we might cite all the cases where masters are 
commanded to do their duties ; for they are, in every 
instance, addressed as Christian masters ; and the same 
is ti'ue of the slaves. Clearly, then, the inference 
follows, that this relation is not inconsistent with Chris- 
tian character and profession. 

4. TJie fourth subordinate proposition. — The New Tes- 
tament recognizes the existence of slavery. 

5. The fifth subordinate proposition. — The Neio Testa- 
ment prescribes the duties of servants to their masters, 
and of viasters to their servants ; enjoining obedience to 
the one, and kind treatment from the other. 



Meanwhile, no injunction is laid upon masters to 
liberate their slaves ; nor is there any hint given to 
slaves to run away from their masters. All this I 
shall prove by plain and direct Scriptures, and then 
shall deduce some legitimate conclusions. 

Proof I. — Titus ii. 9, 10 ; " Exhort servants, doulous, 
to be obedient unto their own masters, despotais, and 
to please them well in all things ; not answering 
again, not purloining, [stealing] but shewing all good 
fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our 
Saviour in all things." 

It is important to remark, that this, and most of the 
subsequent proofs, are found in the midst of contexts 
where the leading social relations of life are dwelt upon, 
and their duties pointed out. Here " the aged men," and 
" the aged women ; " the young women," and " young 
men," are exhorted. In some of the following cases, 



540 STRICTURES 

husbands and wives, parents and children, magistrates and 
subjects, are mentioned ; and, just among them, servants 
and masters, recognizing it as an existing relation. 

On this passage, note, 1. The servants, doulous, are 
exhorted to be obedient to their own masters, despotais, 
despots, absolute masters. It is the strongest term the 
Greek language knows to express absolute and arbitrary 
power. 

2. That this obedience should be cheerful and hearty, 
not with an ill grace, a surly, and dissatisfied, and 
hesitating manner. 

3. They are commanded not to steal their master's 
property: but to feel an interest in his welfare, and to 
be faithful in looking after it. 

How different, in all three respects, this, from the 
teachings of modern anti-slavery doctors ! They teach 
that slaves may, and ought to disobey their masters — 
to run off, to steal their master's, or any person's horse, 
saddle, bridle, food, clothing, anything that may be 
necessary to facilitate their escape. Such morality may 
be found in the abolition journals of the day. 

4. The glory of God is promoted by the cheerful obedi- 
ence and faithful conduct of Christian slaves. Such 
conduct adorns the doctrine of God our Saviour. Now, 
we put it to our brethren, whether this course of conduct, 
in Christian slaves, is not much more likely to win their 
masters, and all others, to embrace the doctrine from 
which it springs, than the stealing and running off, which 
they recommend. Are those who engage in running 
negroes to Canada, " adorning the doctrine of God our 
Saviour, in all things '?" We put it to your consciences, 
Brethren ! 

Proof II. — Col. iii. 22 ; iv. 1 ; " Servants, obey in all 
things, your masters according to the flesh; not with 



ON ABOLITIONISM. oM 

eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but in singleness of heart , 
fearing God ; and, whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as > 

to the Lord, and not unto men ; knowing that of thi; > 

Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance ; 
for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong, 
shall receive for the wrong which he hath done ; and 
there is no respect of persons. Masters, give unto your 
servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye, 
also, have a master in heaven." 

1. Here, strict obedience is enjoined to masters, 
"according to the flesh" — that is, masters in regard 
to worldly things. 2. This obedience is not merely 
outward, but inward ; sincerely, and truly rendered. 
In which he shows how obedience in carnal things is 
consistent with spiritual obedience to the Lord. Li 
obeying your earthly masters, in all things, [lawful, that 
is] you obey your heavenly Master too — " ye serve the 
Lord Christ." 3. The servant, doulos — the slave that 
does wrong — that withholds due service from his master, 
that purloins, or is, in any way, unfaithful, shall be 
punished for his wrong doing. If he obey the counsels 
of modern abolitionists, God the Redeemer will judge 
him. 4. As injustice is forbidden to the servants, so 
injustice is forbidden to the masters. Wrong is pro- 
hibited on both sides. For wrong, the master will be 
punished as well as the slave. 

But the question arises, what is just and equal ? Our 
Brethren will say, that it means, among other things, 
liberty. But this text does not say so, nor does any othei'. 
On the contrary, it is implied, that the relation continues. 
The masters are masters still ; and the slaves are slaves 
still ; and it is to the existing rclaticm the whole context 
applies. If the relation is annihilated, the duties of 
obedience, here enjoined, can no longer exist. This, 



542 STRICTURES 

then, is mere subterfuge. What is just and equal] 
Undoubtedly, kind treatment ; comfortable food, and 
raiment, and instruction in all the blessed doctrines of 
the Bible. These things, good, believing masters do; 
and, in so doing, obey God, and give more than is 
commonly given to hired servants. We are often told that 
they ought to set them free and pay them visages. Well, 
perhaps they ought to free them. But this will depend 
upon circumstances. As to paying wages, it is notorious, 
and the abolitionists have shown it a hundred times, 
that the slaves are often paid higher wages than the 
free blacks or whites : using the term wages in the strict 
sense of political economy. " We must be careful," says 
Prof. Vethake, (p. 33,) " not to confound the real wages 
of the laborer, with his money wages. The latter, as 
has been before stated, are only instrumental in procuring 
the former. The laborer, who receives money for his 
services, exchanges it again for the necessaries and 
comforts of life, both of a material and immaterial 
nature, which he is enabled by means of it to obtain ; 
and the money is only transitorily in his possession." 
The real wages of labor are food, clothing, houseroom, 
education — all the necessaries and comforts of life. But 
now it is proverbial, that many slaves devour their 
masters — they consume more than they produce — they 
receive more wages than they earn — they get more 
than is just and equal. And this constitutes an 
argument, not on moral or religious grounds, but simply 
on the ground of political economy, against the whole 
system ; which I think entirely unanswerable. It has 
been demonstrated ten thousand times, that slave labor 
is, upon the whole, the dearest, and cannot compete 
with free labor. Would you, INIr. Moderator, or any 
of these brethren, take a common laborer, with a family. 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



543 



and obligate yourself to feed, clothe, house, and educate 
them as laborers and Christians, at your own cost, making 
yourself, and your heirs, liable for them, for the space 
of forty years ? I mean, all moral considerations aside, 
and receiving the question as a mere dollar and cent 
matter — would you] Where is the man that would 
do it? Still, the deficient production results from the 
system ; and, combined with a law before mentioned, 
constitutes the physical necessity, whereby the Creator 
provides for removing the evils of oppressive bondage. 
But we may not run out in this direction. 

Proof III. — 1 Pet. ii. 18: "Servants, be subject to 
your masters, with all fear; not only to the good and 
gentle, but also to the froward." This is part of a 
context, where the relative duties of social life are 
enjoined — magistrates and subjects, servants and masters, 
husbands and wives, are addressed. 

1. The term servant, is different; it is, oiketes, a house 
servant. But that it implies here, a slave, is evident, from 
the treatment to which they were exposed — "they suffered 
wrongfully" — "were buffeted" — "endured grief," and are 
commanded to submit and bear it patiently, out of con- 
science towards God. Now this is inconceivable, in 
regard to hired senrants, or any temporary engagement. 

2. The subjection enjoined, is to despctais, absolute 
masters. 

3. The term by which he expresses the subjection, is 
also strong : it means the absolute, rigid subordination of 
military government; where not the least hesitancy, or 
delay, or demurring, is tolerated. 

4. The fear with which they are to submit, also shews 
the relation of master and slave. 

The whole drift of the passage is plain and easy. It 
enforces the duty of submission, in all things not sinful 



644 STRICTURES 

before Grod, upon the slaves ; even in extreme cases of 
harsh and cruel treatment ; and that from the considera- 
tion that the God whom they serve, v^'ill be glorified by 
it, and the religion they profess will be commended to 
the hearts of all men. Could Peter, moved by the Holy 
Ghost, have done all this, if the very relation of master 
and slave, was, in itself, and, independently of all contingent 
abuses, a sinful relation ? 

Proof IV. — Philemon was a slaveholder, at least, if 
owning one slave makes a man a slaveholder, Onesimus, 
his slave, had fallen under the influence of bad counsel ; 
whether the dictate of his own heart, or of some ancient 
anti-slavery partizan. He ran off from his master, who 
resided at Colosse, a city in the interior of Asia Minor. 
See Col. iv. 8, 9 : " Tychicus have I sent unto you 
* * * with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, 
who is one of you." This may show a special reason, 
why Paul, in this epistle to the Colossians, which was 
undoubtedly carried by Tychicus and Onesimus, presses, 
as we have seen, the duties of servants to their masters, 
according to the flesh. The letter was carried by a 
runaway slave, now returned to his sound mind, and 
hereby commanded to obey his master. 

This runaway found himself at Rome, and came to 
hear Paul preach in his chains, in his own hired house ; 
and was, through grace, converted unto God; after which, 
Paul sent him back to his master. Let us note particulars. 

1. The apostle recognizes Philemon's right to Onesimus' 
service — verses 13, 14: "Whom I would have retained 
with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto 
me in the bonds of the gospel. But without thy mind 
would I do nothing ; that thy benefit should not be as it 
■were of necessity, but willingly." Paul lived in his own 
hired house, yet he was in chains, and needed some 



OIv ABOLITIONISM. 



545 



person to do his errands, lay in and cook his food, wash 
his clothes, &c., &c. These kind of services, Philemon 
had done, or caused to be done, for the apostle, when at 
Colosse, as is most likely, from this verse and the 22nd, 
where he requests him to "prepare me also a lodging." 
But, however much Paul needed Onesimus, and however 
assured he felt, that did Philemon, the master, know the 
fiituation of his beloved friend, the apostle, he would have 
most cheerfully consented to let Onesimus stay and attend 
upon him, yet could he not consent to keep him, without 
his master's expressed will. 

2. Onesimus was a slave. Paul urges Philemon to 
receive him, " not now as a doulos, but above a doulos, a 
brother beloved, especially to me; but how much more 
unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord." 

"Not now" — ouJcete — not any longer, as a doulos. 
Here is the distinct implication that, heretofore, he had 
been treated as a slave — a doulos — but now, no longer 
is he to be so treated. This alludes to the Levitical 
law, already explained. Lev. xxv. 39-42. The Hebrew 
is to treat his brother Hebrew, now his Ebed — his doulos 
— his slave — not like slaves are commonly treated, icith 
rigor, but as soukeers — hired men are usually treated, 
Avith kindness and lenity. Now, says Paul, this doulos is 
a brother, and our law requires such to be kindly treated, 
and "I know that you will do even more than I say," 
verse 21. 

3. In this last expression, there is a hint at emancipa- 
tion. It is highly probable, that Philemon not only treated 
him kindly, but set him free, and assisted him to some 
farther education, and thus enabled him to enter the 
ministry. Such things have been done, and are continually 
doing in our own day, in regard to indented apprentices, 
and even to slaves. Several talented and efficient preachers, 



546 STRICTURES 

now in Liberia, were thus manumitted. But now, this 
very thing, which I understand to be admitted by some of 
our anti -slavery brethren, contains the whole for which 
I am here contending, viz : that slavery existed, and 
obedience was commanded, in the New Testament. 

4. Paul does not command Philemon to liberate 
Onesimus. He does not even command him to receive 
him and treat him kindly. But he does say he might 
do this latter — he has authority to enjoin — to command — 
verse 8 : yet he prefers to put himself in the position of 
an equal with Philemon, and enti'eat him. From this it 
has been argued — rather assumed, that he had power to 
order Philemon to emancipate him, but forbore to exercise 
it. This is wholly gratuitous, groundless, and false. The 
power which, in verse 8, he asserts he has, he turns into 
an entreaty, and it is, that the master would receive his 
slave and treat him no longer as a slave, but according 
to the law, with lenity, as a brother. 

.5. Another point illustrated here, is the pilfering 
character of runaway slaves. Onesimus had taken the 
precaution, in our day given as advice by some aboli- 
tionists, to supply his pockets, from his master's stores, 
before he left him. Verse 18: "If he have wronged 
thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account," 
&c. So punctiliously regardful is he of the master's 
rights, that he renders himself liable, as a surety, for all 
the property the slave may have stolen from his master. 
A^ain, Mr. Moderator, let me call your attention to the 
strong contrast, between the morality of the New Testa- 
ment, and that of modern abolitionism. This encourages 
the slave to disobey, to steal, to run off; that commands 
him to return, to be honest, to be obedient. 

But a recent discovery has been made in the laboratory 
of Greek criticism. It is now ascertained, that Onesimus 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



547 



was merely the younger brother of Philemon — that he 
did not like the vigilant and close treatment of his older 
brother, who was his legal guardian — that he went off, 
and Paul sent him back. Now, Mr. Moderator, you must 
not smile at this. It is, indeed, ludicrous; but then, 
laughable as the thing is, in itself, we must not always 
treat things with that contempt which their merits 
demand. This criticism is advanced, in serious earnest, 
and we must bite in our lips, and seem to be grave in 
our reply. 

Well, on what is this new theory founded ? Why, 
simply on the phrase, in the fiesht verse 16. It is asserted 
that Onesimus was a brother of Philemon, both " in the 
flesh and in the Lord." Ah ! but does the text say this ? 
Or does it say that Onesimus was beloved — "both in the 
flesh " — that is, in regard to civil and temporal affairs, 
"and in the Lord" — that is, in regard to spiritual things? 
It needs not Greek spectacles to see, that there is a 
comparison drawn between Paul and Philemon, in 
reference to the measure, or degree of attached feeling 
towards Onesimus. Paul says, that Onesimus is now a 
brother — to whom? To Philemon, and to Paul, too — 
though he calls him his son: but he is a beloved brother 
— beloved to whom? — "to me;" yes, and "unto thee." 
But, in what degree, is he beloved to them respectively ? 
Why, "especially." But, esjieciallt/ what] Is it especially 
beloved, or is it especially a brother? Which word does 
the adverb especially/, qualify? — beloved or brother? Most 
assuredly it cannot qualify brother; but it can, and doe.t 
qaKlify beloved : he is beloved in a high degree — "especially 
to me;" but in a higher degree — "how much more to 
thee" — beloved, "both in the flesh, and in the Lord." 
Clearly, if the thing were possible, that the adverb, 
especially, and the adverbial phrase, how much vwre, could 



548 



STRICTURES 



qualify brother, then we would have the ludicrous idea 
presented, of Onesimus being a brother germain to Paul, 
and to Philemon, both; but that he was more a brother to 
Philemon, than to Paul ! ! " 

There are two other objections to this novel criticism. 
It requires proof, that the older brother was a master, and 
the younger his slave, doulos. We doubt much whether 
any sane man will undertake to prove this historically. 
The other is, that the phrase, in the fiesh, is the same in 
its meaning, with according to the flesh, which we have 
seen used in the epistle to the Colossians, written at the 
same time with that to Philemon, and sent by the same 
messengers. The sense is not equivocal — in the flesh, or 
according to the flesh, is simply, as to wcn-ldly aflairs,' and 
in the spirit, or in the Lord, or according to the spirit, as 
to spiritual affairs. 

Proof V. — Eph. vi. 5-9: "Servants, be obedient unto 
them who are your masters, according to the flesh, with 
fear and ti'embling, in singleness of your heart, as unto 
Christ. * * * And ye masters, do the same things 
unto them; forbearing threatening," &c. 

Here, again, all the points are sustained. The relation 
exists. The duties of servants — slaves — are prescribed, 
in peremptory language. The distinction is noted between 
the master, as to the flesh — as to worldly affairs, and 
Christ, the spiritual master, and the general consistency 
of their service to both; and the reward of faithfulness is 
held out as a motive. The masters are commanded "to 
do the same things," that is, to carry out the same spirit 
of good-will towards them, in gentle and kind treatment, 
which the servants are commanded to practice, and with 
an eye to their own accountability to God. Not one 
word can here be found encouraging servants to steal a 
horse, and run away; not one hint to masters about the 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 549 

gin of slavery, and the duty of repenting of it; and no 
command to manumit their slaves. 

Proof VI. — 1 Tim. vi. 1-5 : " Let as many servants as 
are under the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all 
honor, that the name of God, and his doctrine be not 
blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let 
them not despise them, because they are brethren, but 
rather do them service, because they are faithful and 
beloved — partakers of the benefit. These things teach 
and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent 
not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to 
godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing; but doting about 
questions, and strifes of words ; whereof cometh envy, 
strife, railing, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men 
of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing 
that gain is godliness : from such, withdraw thyself" 

We ai-e to bear in mind, that these are among the 
instructions given by an aged and experienced minister, 
under the spirit of inspiration, to a youth in the service. 
When we connect with this the very brief space covered 
by the whole epistle, we must conclude that Paul thought 
the subject of slavery a delicate and important one, that 
he could afford it so much space. Let us carefully 
analyze the context. 

1. The persons spoken to, are slaves, douloi, and the 
correlate terra, is despotoi — masters — absolute in authority 
over them, 

2. But the spirit of inspiration, foreseeing the mischief 
which misguided zeal would occasion in the premises, and 
the twisting and wrenching of scripture, which would 
attend its efforts, has appended a phrase, which cuts off 
the possibility of plausible cavil. These douloi are under 
the yoke, a phrase which undoubtedly signifies bondage, 



550 STKICTURES 

deep and degraded slavery. This phrase does not again 
occur in the New Testament. The term yoke, however, 
does occur five times : rather the Greek word zugos. 
Matt. xi. 29, 30, it is used to signify that perpetual, 
perfect, absolute, unmurmuring, and everlasting subjec- 
tion, under which God's redeemed are laid to serve him. 
" Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me * * for 
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." In Acts xv. 
10, it signifies the slavery into which some labored to 
bring the Gentile converts, to the ceremonial law. * * 
" Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the 
disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to 
bear." In Gal. v. 1, the same is called "a yoke of 
bondage." In Rev. vi. 5, the word is correctly translated 
"a pair of balances." 

Let us inquire how the same Greek word is used, in 
the Septuagint — the old Greek translation of the Old 
Testament. Its meaning there may assist us here. If it 
is there a symbol of bondage — a type of slavery — it 
creates a strong presumption that it is so here, also. 

It is used some fifteen times as the translation of a 
word that signifies a pair of balances, mozanayim, as in 
Lev. xix. 36 : Job vi. 2, and xxxi. 6 ; Ps. Ixii. 9 ; Prov. 
xi. 1, &c. 

Again, it is used for 01, a word that means the instru- 
ment by which oxen, or beasts of burden, draw. This is 
the natural and proper sense, as in Num. xix. 2 : " Bring 
thee a red heifer * * upon which never came yoke." 
So, Deut. xxi. 3 ; 1 Sam. vi. 7-10. 

Again, it is used in the figurative sense as the symbol 
of oppressive bondage. Isa. ix. 4, and x. 27 : " Thou 
hast broken the yoke of his burden;" "His burden shall 
be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke irom 
oflf thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed, because of 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 651 

the anointing." And, xiv, 25, the same; and, xlvii. 6, 
" Upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke." 
So, Jer. ii. 20; and v. 5; and xxvii. 8, 11, 12; and 
xxviii. 2, 4, 11, 14; and xxx. 8; Lam. iii. 27; Ezek. 
xxxiv. 27. 

Again, Isa. Iviii. 6, the Greek word is used, for one 
which means the baws of the yoke, the bands, or whatever 
fastens the yoke on the neck; and thus is very suitable to 
express the idea of bondage. Thus, it is clear, that, to be 
under the yoke, is to be in a state of slavery. To have the 
yoke broken off, is to be made free. This will be admitted 
by all abolitionists : for they use Isa. Iviii. 6, very constantly 
in their prayers, and, I suppose, in their arguments : " Is 
not this the fast that I have chosen ] to loose the bands of 
wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens; and to let the 
oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke." 

Mr. Moderator, it has been argued on this floor, from 
this very passage, that we are bound to manumit all the 
slaves. We have here an admission, which might have 
saved me the preceding labor. However, it is performed, 
and you have it. You have also the concession of the 
opposite side, that to be under the yoke, means to be 
slaves. Let us keep this. The douloi of whom Paul here 
speaks, our abolition brethren admit, were slaves. But 
then, what will we do with Isaiah 1 We will take his 
language for just what it means. And it is obvious, at 
a glance, that the prophet is correcting abuses, in the 
context referred to. As in the days of Nehemiah, the 
Hebrews had gradually disregarded the laws relative to 
the treatment of their slaves : they did not release at the 
end of the sixth year, nor even at the jubilee; they 
treated their Hebrew servants with rigor, contrary to 
law. These illegal exactions he would correct. The 
law forbid the Hebrew to make his brother serve \n\h 



552 STRICTURES 

ri'Tor: this, Isaiah would restore — "to loose the bands 
of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens." The law 
ordered the servant to be set free, of whom the master 
had broken a tooth, or destroyed an eye : this, the prophet 
enforces, " and to let the oppressed — the broken, as it 
signifies, go free : that is, for his eye's or his tooth's sake. 
The law made all Hebrew slaves free at the end of six 
years ; and here the prophet, like Nehemiah, enforces the 
law : " Let every man, who is entitled by the law, to his 
freedom, go fi'ee — bi'eak ye off every yoke." To infer, 
from the general term, " eve^-y yoke," that those who 
were not, by law, entitled to freedom, must obtain it, is 
not to interpret, but to pervert the prophet's language. 
*' Servants, obey your masters in all things," is Paul's 
injunction. No, to infer that they are to do things in 
obedience to man, which God has forbidden, is to pervert, 
and not to interpret Paul. So here, exactly. To infer, 
from the general term, every yoke, that the prophet means 
to oblige the Israelite to manumit those servants, whom 
the law expressly says he may keep as servants for ever, is 
not to explain Isaiah, but to pervert his obvious intent and 
meaning. 

Again : the servants, in this context, are " exhorted to 
account their own masters worthy of alt honor ;" hence, 
according to the mode of interpretation we refute, the 
inference must be, that they should account these masters 
worthy of divine worship, for this is included in all honor ; 
if every yoke necessarily means all slaves absolutely, and 
all absolutely are commanded, by Isaiah, to be set free ; 
then, all honor must include divine reverence and adora- 
tion; and so, these slaves must worship their masters as 
gods. Such absurdities follow from neglect of that canon 
of interpretation, which sound criticism and common sense 
have, for ages, established and deemed incontrovertible, 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



553 



namely, that general terms must be subjected to such 
restrictions, as the nature of the subject, and the scope 
or drift of the writer require. In the present instance, 
by this rule, all 1i(mor, means all honor properly belonging 
to the relation of master and servant, as regulated by the 
laws and reputable usages of the community. So in 
Isaiah, all yokes, or every yoke, means every one, which, 
according to law, and reputable use, required to be 
broken off. 

3. My third remark, on this passage of Timothy, is, 
that these douloi under the yoke, are exhorted to account 
their own masters worthy of all honor. The word 
for masters, is dcspotos — absolute lords. It was before 
stated, that this is a strong term. It is used in Simeon's 
prayer, Luke ii. 29 : " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant 
depart in peace." In Acts iv. 24 : * * * " Lord, 
thou art God," Rev. vi. 10 : " How long, O Lord:' 
Jude iv.: " Denying the only Lord God," &c. The 
term properly signifies absolute lord or master, and this 
has its proper correlate in dmilos, a slave. Now, these 
despots are to be accounted worthy of all honor; and 
Christian slaves are commanded not to despise their 
believing masters, but to serve them — to perform the 
part of slaves to them — douleiietosan. Here is the 
very contradictory — the exact opposite of abolitionism. 
Instead of contemning, and despising, and purloining, 
and running away from their masters, as some teach 
they ought, these slaves are exhorted, and commanded, to 
respect and love, to abide with, and faithfully to serve, 
their despots, 

4, We may observe, again, the reason, enforcing this 
obedience and respectful demeanor. It is, that the religion 
of these Christian slaves may be commended to their 
masters, and to all men. Christianity is not a religion 



554 



STRICTURES 



of violent civil and political revolutions : it never organizes 
a political party. Its interference — rude and violent 
interference with civil arrangements, v^ould cause its 
author's name to be blasphemed, and his doctrines to 
be abhorred and rejected. 

5. Timothy is not left at liberty to teach, or not to 
leach, this doctrine of the subordination of slaves to their 
own masters. Paul lays it on him peremptorily. " These 
things teach and exhort." It is quite possible, that the 
colonizationists, the only true and efficient friends of the 
colored race, have fallen behind the line of duty in this 
thing. For love of peace — from an earnest desire to 
avoid violent excitement, we have neglected Paul's 
injunction. We have so held back, as to produce the 
impression upon the minds of the oppcments of Paul's 
doctrine, that we felt ourselves at a loss for anything to 
say in his defence. You have seen them in this Synod, 
daring, and braving, and bantering us. 

" I am for peace, but when I speak, 
For battle they are keen." 

6. The apostle points out the origin of the opposite 
teaching. And here, Mr. Moderator, I am sorry I shall 
be obliged to say some things extremely unpleasant — 
unpleasant to our brethren ; hard for them to endure, 
because they will come with blistering severity — unpleas- 
ant for me to utter, only because of the pain they may 
occasion; the alienation of affection, the heart-burnings 
and jealousies that will probably follow : not because 
they are uncalled for and avoidable ; they are become 
imperiously necessary. These very brethren have made 
the issue and forced us upon it. Faithfulness to God's 
word will no longer tolerate mincing and mouthing 
with great caution. We must expound it according 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 



555 



to its plain and obvious truth and meaning. If the 
two-edged sword meet with matter to cut, let it cut. 
If a festering ulcer fret and fatten on the body ecclesi- 
astical, let the scalpel reach its core, and let the probe 
search its depth. 

I say, then, that Paul finds the origin of abolitionism 
in the vanity, self-conceit, and puffed up pride of the 
human heart. " If any man teach otherwise, and 
consent not to wholesome words," &c. Now, to teach 
otherwise, is to teach other and opposite doctrine to 
that which he teaches, viz : that slaves should respect, 
love, and serve their own masters. If any man teach 
opposite to these doctrines — if he teach modern anti- 
slavery doctiines, such as abound in their publications 
and speeches, he is tetuipliotai — proud we have it 
translated. But I appeal to every Greek scholar, if it 
do not mean vain, puffed up, self-conceited. But I will 
not trust to Greek scholars only. I will refer you to 
better authority — 1 Tim. iii. G. Speaking of the qualifi- 
cations of a bishop, Paul says, he must be, *■* Not a 
novice, lest heing lifted vp with pride — tuipJiotheis — he 
fall into the condemnation of the devil." The word 
in our text, then, translated " he is proud," means such 
a lifting up with pride, as greatly endangers the person's 
fallins: into the condemnation of the devil. 

Again, 2 Tim. iii. 4 ; speaking of the last days — the 
days in which we live. Sir, and of the perilous times 
that shall come, he says, " Men shall be lovers of their 
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud * * traitors, heady, 
liigh-minded, tetvphomenoi." Does not this mean, puffed 
up with vain pride and contemptible self-conceit? 

This form of the word does not again occur in the 
New Testament ; but nearly the same we have once, 
Matt. xii. 20, " The smoking flax he will not quench," 



556 STRICTURES 

tuphomenon linon. The primary idea is taken from the 
thick vapory smoke, which ascends from damp straw 
or weeds, when they are kindled with fire, but before 
the flame acquires strength to consume the foggy smoke. 
How forcibly does this describe the state of a self- 
conceited mind, which supposes itself the origin of light, 
and truth, and wisdom; and wrapping itself round and 
round in the fog and smoke of its own vanity, and 
ascending amid the cloud of its own incense, looks down 
with pity or with scorn, upon the ignorant world 
below ! 

The history of modern abolitionism, as to its origin, 
will be found to tally with this picture. A vigorous 
young man was refused promotion in the service of 
the American Colonization Society ; he became offended, 
removed to a neighboring city, set up an opposition 
paper, and thus became the father of the modern anti- 
slavery movement. Who the mother may have been, 
is now difficult to tell. That honor may, perhaps, by 
a little slip of chronology, be conferred on Abby Kelly — 
at least, she is laboriously discharging the duties of a 
dry nurse. 

7. Let us mark, in the last place, the consequences 
of a system of movements, which has such an origin. 
Could they be expected to be characterized by meekness, 
wisdom, humility, brotherly kindness, charity ] As well 
might the lamb and kid claim paternity from the hyena 
and the wolf. But see what Paul says; — "Whereof 
Cometh envy, strife, railing, evil- surmisings, perverse 
disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the 
truth." To this charge, Mr. Moderator, our brethren 
of this Synod, on behalf o£ the original abolitionists, 
now the Garrison and Abby Kelly party, have pleaded 
guilty. They have distinctly admitted the correctness 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 5o7 

of Paul's prophetic representations. But for themselves — 
and thus far we gladly admit the plea — and for the 
great body of abolitionists, they plead not guilty ; and 
attempt to wash their hands of all the infidel party's 
doings. But we must not — whilst we let off our brethren 
individually, and as ministers (jf God, from the weight 
of this charge — we must not, and we cannot, in faithful- 
ness tu Paul and to truth, let the abolition movement 
escape. We contend, that the injidel aboUtiatiists — the 
no government men and women — the anarchical party, 
are the real, ti'ue, and only consistent anti-slavery men 
and wonjen. They are the sound logicians, who have 
fearlessly followed out the fundamental principle of the 
movement. It were easy to show, that, if you once admit 
the simple relation of master and servant, irrespective 
of cruelty and abuses, to be, in itself, sinful, then you 
must deny the morality of a temporary existence of 
the relation ; for if it is a sin, in itself, it must be so 
whether it be of long or short duration. Surely, if to 
hold a man in bondage for life — say thirty years — is 
a sin ; to hold him ten, five, one year, is a sin too. But 
the relation of parent and child involves obligations of the 
latter to obey the former ; hence, this, too, must be 
abandoned. Next goes that of husband and wife. 
Next, that of civil ruler and ruled. The orio^inal 
abolitionists have clearly seen, that all these relations 
are spoken of in the same Scriptures that speak of 
master and servant ; and they have logically inferred, 
that the arguments which go to make the simple relation 
a sin, in the one, will equally nullify the whole. The 
infidel abolitionists are the sound reasoners in this case. 
We, therefore, hold the movement, as a whole, responsible 
for the horrible results which our brethren, here, deplora 
equally with us. 



558 STRICTURES 

Thus, by six plain passages of Scriptui-e, have I proved 
the fourth and fifth- propositions, that the New Testament 
recognizes the existence of slavery ; and that it prescribes 
the duties of servants to their masters, and masters to 
their servants ; and yet, in no instance, does it forbid 
slaves to obey, or masters to retain their slaves : no 
text commands masters to liberate their slaves. 

Let lis now hear the conclusion of the whole Scriptural 
argument. I have demonstrated five distinct propositions 
in regard to the Old Testament, which see. 

As to the New Testament, T have laid down two 
distinct general propositions, and supported them by 
five distinct subordinate ones : — 

I. There is not a sentence in the New Testament which 
expressly forhids the having and the holding of a slave. 

II. There is not a sentence in the New Testament rohich, 
hy fair and just interpretation, according to the rules of 
grammar, gives ground for the logical inference that the 
simple holding of a slave or slaves is inconsistent with 
Christian profession and Christian character. 

The five which go to prove the truth of these are : — 

I. That the Greek word, doulos, usually translated 
servant, proferly and commonly means a person held to 
service for life — a slave. 

This was proved by a reference to all the cases of its 
occurrence in the New Testament, by classes ; and by 
its contrast with the opposite term, eleutheros — this means 
free ; doidos is the opposite, and must mean a slave. 

II. With an inference. Fatd advises servants to abide 
quietly in their condition. This he could not do, if the 
relation of master and servant tcere, in itself, a sin. 

This was proved, and the inference was sustained. 

III. With an inference. The New Testament recogni- 
zes some masters as good men — true and faithful believers. 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 659 

therefore, the relat'nm of master and slave may exist 
consistently with Christian character and profession. 

IV. The New Testament recognizes the existence of 
slavery. 

V. The New Testavient prescribes the duties of servants 
to their masters, and of masters to their servants ; enjoining 
obedience to the onCy and kind treatment from the other. 

As to these propositions, both relative to the Old and 
New Testaments, I am aware the practiced logician may 
take exception on the ground of form and arrangement : 
lie may say, they are not always distinct — they overlap 
in some places. This is admitted, and was, perhaps, 
not wholly avoidable, in an argument designed not 
exclusively for the practiced reasoner, but mainly for 
the popular mind. Their truth, however, is the main 
matter; and to this I invite the attention of any who 
may choose to reply. I hope the brethren will not 
flinch. If any man chooses to controvert any one of 
them, let him do it ; not by declaiming against the horrors 
of slavery, or the impiety of asserting that the Bible 
tolerates it. Let us not have popular appeals, but 
logical, scriptural argument. Let no man content him- 
self with a tirade against my inferences ; let him come 
up fearlessly to my propositions. If he can refute them, 
or any of them, then, he may shake public confidence 
in the inferences. Until then, they will stand unmoved 
in the solid judgment of thinking men, whatever excite- 
ment may be raised by pathetic appeals to human 
sympathy, and the weaknesses of men and women.* 

* It is worthy of remark, that although every effort was made, in the 
delivery of this speech in Synod, to invite attention to the above propo- 
sitions, and every thing done which tlie speaker could think of to 
provoke th3 opposition to deny them, or anj' of them, and to bring plain 
Scripture command to masters, to liberate their slaves, not one of the 



560 STRICTURES 

The inferences which I deduce from the preceding 
propositions are two, viz : — 

I. According to the Bible, a man may stand in the 
relation of a master and hold slaves, and yet be a fair, and 
reputable, and consistent professor of the religion of the 
Bible. 

II. There is no power on earth — no authority in the 
Church, to mahe the holding, or the not holding of a slave, 
a term of communion, or condition of admission to the 
privileges of the Church. 

For cruelty to their slaves, in any form — for unkind 
and harsh treatment — for violent and abusive language, 
even masters may be censured, and if such offences 
against the Word of God be persevered in, may be 
suspended and ultimately excommunicated. But if a 
master treats his servants as the Bible commands him 
to do, there is no power in Church officers, to censure 
or excommunicate him, simply because he is a master — 
because he holds slaves. Hence, the Corollary : Who- 
ever assume and exercise such power, do therein usurp 
the prerogative of the King and Head of the Church, and 
expose themselves to the penalties of such as lord it over 
God's heritage. Such violate a plain precept of God's 
word: — "Be not many masters;" "neither as being 
lords over God's heritage." They thrust themselves into 
the throne, and exercise a power which Christ has not 
granted to the officers of the Church j but which he has 

propositions was denied by any speaker, and no man ever asserted that 
the Bible commands masters to free their slaves. A speech of about six 
and a half hours was delivered, chiefly in direct reply to this, yet no 
attempt was made to disprove one of the points taken, nor w as one of 
them directly denied ; nor was it pretended, by any of the speakers, that 
the Bible commands masters to manumit their slaves, nor was their 
inability to do any of these things manfully acknowledged by any of the 
brethren. 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 661 

forbidden to be exercised. Tliey become, themselves) the 
usurping despots, and make the freemen of God their slaves. 

You see, Mr. Moderator, I proceed upon the principle, 
that the King of Zion, only, can settle the terms or 
conditions of admission to membership in his visible 
kingdom. If any man deny this, I cannot, here, enter 
into controversy with iiim. But, assuming this as 
indubitably true, the corollary follows, by an inevitable 
logical necessity. 

What, then, have we gained by this whole argument ] 
Simply this — that slavery — tJie relation of master and 
slave — not, you will observe, any violence ; not any 
cruel treatment; but simply the relation., is tolerated in 
the Holy Scriptiircs. I have not said the Bible sanctions 
it — the Bible commands it, except in the case of forfeiture 
of liberty by crime. But the Bible permits it : no where 
does it command masters to manumit their slaves. 

This, Mr. Moderator, some of our brethren have found 
themselves too honest-hearted to deny. Some have fully 
admitted it. One excellent brother, seeing no room for 
denial, proceeded to argue thus against me, admitting the 
position I have elaborated, as true. What if the Bible 
of old did tolerate slavery ? Does it hence follow that it 
must be tolerated now ? The Bible tolerated polygamy. 
Here is a parallel case, and you will be obliged, by this 
argument, to tolerate this evil. The Hebrews held slaves, 
and weie, notwithstanding, members of God's Church; 
hence, it is inferred. Christians may hold slaves, and yet 
be, and continue, members of God's Church. But, said 
our good brother, the temper of whose steel I understand, 
and can, therefore, make free to try its edge, if this 
argument is good for the toleration of slavery, it is also 
good for the toleration of polygamy. For, the Hebrews 
often had a plurality of wives and concubines, and were, 



562 



STRICTUKES 



notwithstanding, accounted reputable members of the 
Church: consequently, Christians may indulge in poly- 
gamy, and yet occupy a reputable standing in the Church. 
Such was the brother's argument, as I think every one 
in the house must have understood it ; and, I admit, it is 
very plausible, and would be conclusive, if he would 
prove one thing, viz: that polygamy is tolerated in the 
New Testament. Then, the cases would be exactly 
analogous. But exact similarity is indispensable to truth 
and safety, in an analogical argument : and, therefore, 
until it shall be shown, that polygamy existed, and was 
not forbidden, in the New Testament, as I have shown 
that slavery existed, and was not forbidden, the argument 
is not a tripod — it is only a biped ; and a stool cannot 
stand on two legs. But this postulatum neccssarimn — 
this indispensable point, cannot be sustained; for it is the 
reverse of truth. The New Testament prohibits polygamy. 
Mark X. 6 — 8: "But from the beginning of the creation, 
God made them male and female. For this cause shall a 
man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 
and they twain shall be one flesh : so, then, they are no 
more twain, but one flesh." Here is a prohibition, not 
only of causeless divorce, but of polygamy. A man can 
have but one wife, says the Redeemer; and this is the 
original law of man's creation. Moses tolerated your 
departures from this law, " for the hardness of your 
hearts;" but now, the original law is placed before you. 
Accordingly, wherever the duties of husbands are spoken 
of, there can be found no recognition of two or more 
wives to one husband, "for the husband is the head of the 
wife. Let every one so love his wife, even as himself, and 
the wife see that she reverence her husband." Eph. v. 23. 
Always, one only, is implied. But again, 1 Tim. iii. 2, 
describing the qualifications of a bishop, Paul says, he 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 563 

must be "the husband of one wife;" and so, verse 12: 
"Let the (feacons be the husbands of one wife." So, Tit. 
i. 6 : * * * " The husband of one wife." Now these 
show, that polygamy had been tolerated, but now is no 
longer to be tolerated. It is censured as a disqualification 
for any office in the Church. No matter what qualifications, 
otherwise, a man may have for office, if he have more 
than one wife, he is excluded from office. Now, let our 
anti-slavery brethren produce us a declaration of Our 
Redeemer, to this amount, that slavery, which Mosea 
tolerated, is not any longer to be tolerated, that no slave 
holder shall be a deacon, a presbyter, or a bishop. Let 
\ them do this, and their analogical argument is good, and 

we will abandon the defence. Thus, we shut them in. 

But some brethren in the opposition seem, to me, Mr. 
Moderator, to have gone somewhat farther towards giving 
up the ship. Did not your ear catch an argument to this 
amount ? " It is not slavery, in the abstract, we oppose ; 
we disregard abstractions. We oppose slavery as it exists 
in these United States. This, we say, is a sin, and against 
this, we lift up our voice, and would have this Synod to 
condemn it. Let abstract relations go to the wail; but 
let us attack the actual, living reality." Surely, sir, you 
heard this. Well, what is its concession ? Does it not 
concede their inability to occupy a foothold on the ground 
of the civil, social relation of master and slave ? Does it 
not concede that they are able only to assault the abuses, 
"the cruelty, and tyranny, and oppression, so (^)ften con- 
nected with it?" I think one prominent debater admitted, 
in so many words, that he would not, or could not, conteml 
against the abstract relation; but, against the practical 
system, he felt able and determined to contend. Well, 
if they abandon the principle in dispute, let us, for a 
moment, look at the practical argument. 



664 



STRICTURES 



Allow me to state it in full logical form, namely : All 
things, which involve many great and crying moral evils, 
ought immediately to be abandoned and abolished. 

But slavery, as it exists, and is practiced in the United 
States, involves many great and crying moral evils. 

Therefore, slavery, as it exists, and is practiced in the 
United States, ought immediately to be abandoned and 
abolished. 

Is not this the pith and substance of all their arguments ] 
And who will point out one logical defect about it? 
Notwithstanding its plausibility, let us apply the argument 
to other social relations, and see how it will work. 

Marriage, or the relation of husband and wife, as it 
exists, and is practiced in the United States, involves 
many great and crying moral evils ; therefore, it ought to 
be immediately abandoned and abolished. Is not this 
identically the same argument 1 Does it not rest on the 
same major, namely, all things which involve great and 
crying moral evils, ought to be immediately abandoned 
and abolished. Do you not admit the expressed minor ? 
Can any man deny, that husbands and wives, in the 
United States, do often quarrel and wrangle in the very 
matters of duty belonging to the relation? Is there no 
hellish jealousy, no open abuse of power, no violent 
treatment, no abandonment, no horrid murder committed ? 
Clearly, the minor is true, and the conclusion inevitable. 

Again : the parental relation, as it exists and is practiced 
in the United States, involves many great and crying moral 
evils; therefore, it ought to be immediately abandoned and 
abolished. Most assuredly, harsh, unkind treatment, violent 
beating, resulting in death sometimes — lessons of impurity, 
even to compulsory prostitution; and all the natural results 
— ^lying, swearing, stealing, quarrelling, drunkenness — all 
these are involved in, and brought about by the parental 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 565 

relation : the conclusion is logical, it ought to be immedi- 
ately abolished. 

Yet again, civil government, as it exists and is practiced 
in the United States, involves many great and crying moral 
evils; therefore, it ought to be immediately abandoned and 
abolished. Does any man deny the minor? Will any 
man say, there are no moral abominations practiced in our 
government and our politics 1 Are fraud and villainy no 
moral evils 1 Are peijury and falsehood no moral evils 1 
Are slander and defamation no moral evils 1 Are stab- 
bing, and dirking, and shooting men — with all the 
blasphemous language which usually accompanies such 
things — are these no moral evils? You see, sir, the 
conclusion closes in upon us : our civil goveniment ought 
to be immediately abandoned and abolished. 

Examine every one of these, and see whether there be 
any difference in their construction. Persuaded I am, no 
man, who understands what an argument is, will deny 
their exact similarity — their logical identity. But will 
our brethren take the conclusions ? If not, will they be so 
good as to point out the fallacy, in their own argument? 
or so candid, as to admit its existence ? 

The fallacy here, is in one term, and springs from the 
accident. " All things which involve moral evils." Slavery 
involves moral evils. Things may be involved necessarily/ 
or accidentally. Blue paper involves arsenic ; not necessa- 
rily, but only contingently. Arsenic involves a poisonous 
quality; not contingently, h\xt necessarily. Anger involves 
moral evil ; not necessarily, but only contingently. " Be ye 
angry and sin not." Murder involves moral evil; not 
contingently, but necessarily. Thus, you see, that before 
you can draw the conclusion, that our civil government 
ought to be immediately abolished, you must prove that it 
necessarily involves villainy, perjury, falsehood, &c. But 



566 STRICTURES 

that these evils are separable, at least in a high degree, 
from it, must be admitted; and, therefore, the conclusion is 
not correct. 

Before you can infer, that the parental relation ought 
to be immediately abolished, you must prove, that it 
necessarily involves the evils of cruelty, &c. 

Before you can infer, that marriage ought to be 
immediately abolished, you must prove that it necessarily 
involves jealousy, angry contention, and murder. 

Before you can infer, that slavery ought to be 
ittimediately abolished, you must prove that it necessarily 
involves many great and crying evils. If these are 
contingent and avoidable, the inference is illogical ; it 
springs from the fallacy of the accident. 

But there is another question to be met, before you can 
infer that our government ought to be abolished. Be it 
even conceded, that all the evils enumerated are not 
avoidable, that some cannot, in the present state of 
human nature, be entirely remedied ; will it, even then, 
follow, that civil government ought to be abolished l 
Certainly not. The previous question is, would the 
abolition of our government, because some evils involved 
in it are unavoidable, be a removal of these evils and 
involve fewer ] Unless this can be answered affirma- 
tively, clearly, the inference against it is illogical. So, 
were it proved, that all the evils involved in American 
Slavery, are not avoidable, but some are necessarily 
involved; still it will not follow, that it ought at once 
to be abolished, unless it can be shown that this abolition 
would remove the remaining evils, and not introduce 
greater. 

We have been told, the golden rule, " Love thy neighbor 
as thyself — all things whatsoever ye would that men 
should do unto you, do ye even so unto them," makes 



ON ABOLITIONISM. 567 

directly against the very existence of slavery, and leads 
to immediate abolition. But the direct reverse of the 
latter is true. The Golden rule will not suffer immediate 
abolition, except in the special cases, v^^here the slaves are, 
at the time, in a capacity and circumstances in which 
freedom would be a real benefit to them. To turn out 
slaves into the kind of freedom which they enjoy — rather 
which they endure and suffer in our Free States, of Ohio, 
Pennsylvania, New York — with the habits, the education, 
the ignorance of men and business which they mostly 
labor under, would be to act a cruel part, directly in 
opposition to the Saviour's golden rule. No man but 
a fool would wish to be thus set free. No, Mr. Mode- 
rator, the man in whose hands Divine Providence has 
thrown any of his fellow men in this form, is bound by 
every tie that can bind the soul of man, not to set them 
free, until he can do it to their advantage. He may feel 
them a heavy burden — a charge weighty and difficult to 
manage ; but he is bound, by God's authority, to sustain 
the charge, to endure the labor of caring for them, 
making them work, feeding, clothing, and instructing 
them, and thus fitting them for the use of freedom, and 
so leading on to that result, whenever it can be done 
consistently with the highest interests of the community. 
The opposite doctrine is radicalism, and leads to the 
subversion of all order and law. We have a sample 
of it often in the treatment of children. Some parents 
take no control over their children. They are too 
indolent, and have too little conscience to feel the 
obligation to rule their household. Their children enjoy 
a vast amount of liberty — that is, of reckless criminality — 
freedom from all restraints ; and, of course, they become 
the pests of society, and, ultimately the inmates of 
penitentiaries and candidates for the gibbet. But God's 



568 STRICTURES 

law requires and commands parents to rule their children. 
They have no right to set them free, until they are 
first educated and fitted to provide for themselves. So 
masters are bound to keep their servants in bondage, 
until they are fitted to be free. Immediate abolition 
would be, in almost all cases, a gross violation of the 
universal law of love. 

But let us return to the conclusion furnished by the 
Scriptural argument. Slavery is tolerated in the Bible — 
it is not made a term of communion by the King of Zion, 
consequently, the officers of his Church have no power 
to make it a term of communion. Here is the doctrine 
for which we contend ; and, by this we hope to save this 
fair land from being deluged in the blood of its inhabi- 
tants, and this free nation from the chains of sei-vitude to 
European despots. 

Should the opposite doctrine prevail — should the 
holding of slaves be made a crime, by the officers of 
the Churches, the non-slaveholding States, should they 
break communion with their Southern brethren, and 
denounce them as guilty of damning sin, as kid- 
nappers and menstealers, as worthy of the penitentiary, 
as has been done here in this Synod — should this doctrine 
and this practice prevail throughout the Northern States, 
can any man be so blind as not to see, that a dissolution 
of the Union — a civil, and, perhaps, servile war, must 
be the consequence? Such a war as the world has 
never witnessed — a war of uncompromising extermi- 
nation, that will lay waste this vast territory, and leave 
the despotic powers of Europe exulting over the fall 
of the Republic'? All the elements are here — the 
physical, the intellectual, the moral — elements for a 
strife, different, in the horribleness of its character, from 
anything the world has ever witnessed. Let the spirits 



ON ABOLIT[ONISM. 



569 



of these men be only once aroused ; let their feelings be 
only once chafed up to the fighting point ; let the irritation 
only be kept up until the North and the South come to 
blows on the question of slavery, their " contentions will 
be as the bars of a castle," broken only with the last 
pulsations of a nation's heart. 



CERTIFICATES. 



[FROM THE RICHMOND EXAMINER.] 

The Negro Race. — In the able and learned lectures of Mr. Qliddon, 
our attention was particularly excited by his accounts of the antiquities 
in the Egyptian province of Monroe, because those antiquities constitute 
the most striking illustration of negro civilization which history or 
archaeology can produce. Monroe was a counliy on the Nile, above 
Egypt. When the last named and most famous seat of ancient 
civilization was overrun by Cambyses and other cruel conquerors, a 
portion of the inhabitants retreated up the river and established 
themselves in Monroe. Hither they transported their old forma of 
government, of worship, their old arts, and their antique customs. They 
built temples and excavated tombs ; they erected obelisks, they covered 
them with inscriptions in their hieroglyphic alphabet, and the inscriptions 
and sculptures — which date with the first generations of this colony — are 
found to be as perfect as those of the Lower Nile. But the colony was 
cut off from the body of the nation by intervening deserts and fierce 
nomads. The number of emigrants was never increased from the old 
races. Necessarily, the men were in a great disproportion to the 
women, and they were forced to take their wives and concubines from 
the captives which they made in their wars with the surrounding and 
barbarous tribes. Now the Egj'ptians were of a different race, but these 
tribes were negroes. Hence, the second generation of the Monroeites 
were mulattoes. The process of amalgamation continued. They formed 
harems from their sable purchases': so that the third generation were 
Samboes. The next were still nearer the negro type , and the work 
proceeded until all traces of Caucasian blood disappeared, and Monroe 
was inhabited by a pure black race, like that of the vast regions on its 
boundaries. 



2 



The most interesting circumstance connected with these facts, is, the 
continued deterioration in the sculptural remains of the country, and 
their final cessation with the disappearance of the white blood. The 
inscriptions and portraits of the original emigrants, as before said, are 
equal to those of the old Empire. But, in those of their mulatto children, 
their is a great difference. The sculpture is clumsy — the inscriptions iu 
bad grammar and in worse orthography. The next are inferior even to 
those J and, in the succeeding generation, it becomes evident that they 
icholly lost the language, and, no longer understood what they wrote 
The inscriptions are nothing more than miserable copies from the earlier 
works : so that on a tomb that is evidently of a late date, will be found 
a badly executed copy of the inscription on the tomb of its owner's great 
grandfather — even the date and name being unaltered. After that they 
lost even the power of intelligible imitations, and a few scrawls on 
uncarved rocks are the latest remains that are found. The Monroeites 
then cease to be Egyptians even in name and tradition. They have 
forgotten language, government, religion, and arts. They have no 
buildings, and no enduring tombs. The province is no longer distin- 
guishable from the country around. The race has relapsed into absolute 
negro harbarism. 

This illustration of their incapacity, not merely to attain civilization, 
but even to retain it when given them, is a type of the universal history 
of the negi-o race. The world has their history in its hands for the space 
of nearly five thousand years. Negroes appear on the scnplture of old 
Egypt. But in that multitudinous country they were utterly valueless. 
The Egyptians considered them too stupid to be worth teaching even 
agricultural drudgery ; and we only see their figures when led as captives 
in the triumph of some belligerent Pharaoh. From that time unlU this, the 
negro has never appeared, save in three forms of existence : captivity 
barbai-ism, or slavery. The last is the highest foi-m of social life of 
which experience, at least, permits us to suppose him capable. 

Circumstance, could never have kept down any race for five thousand 
years, which were capable of rising into civilization. All the white races 
have been, in time, barbarians ; but all its branches have, in time, left it, 
and attained their natural grades of civilization. But the negro has never 
left the lowest type of barbarism, save for captivity or slavery. In the 
vast continent of Africa they have always existed in millions, with no 
extraordinary circumstances to depress them. But, then, we never 
hear of them, save as cannibal savages. No such thing as a negro 
government has ever existed in Africa. Petty kingdoms have existed, 
and do exist: some with so called cities like Timbuctoo. But the half- 
clad rulers, in all these kingdoms, are Moors or Fellaks, a branch of the 
Arab family, and the people of Timbuctoo are Arabs and Fellaks, Tha 



Republic of Liberia can scarcely be called an exception, since it is 
watched and guided by the Colonization Society, snppffted on ail sides 
by England and by other governments, is re-enforced every year from tha 
United States, and is governed by Mulattoes. Even, with all this 
assistance, it exhibits evidences of decay, and of relapsing into the 
characteristic barbarism of the neighboring native tribes." Dr. RIechlijb 
who lived in Liberia five years, and, for part of that time, was 
governor of that colony, has declared the experiment to be a failure ; and 
died in Mobile, with the declaration, that he saw no hope of ever 
rendering the negro race fit for self-government. On this continent, they 
have received the most signal trial. They were protected by civilized 
Slates. They possessed the richest islands on the globe, with the 
richest commerce at their doors. The result is very notorious. Famine 
ravages, often, that fertile land. Petty but desolating wars occupy 
its sections. The only government which subsists, la that of a 
bloody and stupid beast, who is emperor over one corner of the island. 
Off from the seaports, the people have lost arts, rehgion, industi-j-, 
decency — have relapsed into absolute cannibalism. Dr. Nott states, on 
the authority of an eye witness, that, on two occasions, while travelling in 
Hayti, he saw the negroes roasting and eating their Dominican prisoners 
by the road-side. 

In the free States of this country, the negro race can reach every 
advantage which the white man possesses. Many of them are educated. 
But where have they evinced capacity to make use of our civilization? 
Where have their best classes achieved a higher destiny than that of 
tavern waiters. 1 Where have their masses risen above the very lowest 
level of the worst population ? Where has any individual even, attained 
not to say distinction, but respectability in any profession? In England, 
manj- negi'oes who were supposed to exhibit talent when children, have 
been subjected to the hot bed process of culture, and two or three of 
these have been brought up to the mark of writing verses. These have 
been collated into a volume, and Bishop Gregoire, of Blois, has written 
a stupid book to prove, therefrom, the intellectual equality of the race. 
But any one who will take the trouble to read these verses will find 
them for the most part, a doggerel too poor to bo called verses at all ; 
Bud, whenever a copy occurs, of sufficient merit for the poet's comer 



* Although this may be true to a limited extent, as is clearly established by 
evidence of an unquestionable character, yet our desires for the success of this 
colony, leads us to hope for better results. The Colony of Liberia, affording, as it 
does, an assylum for ths refuse free black population of the United States, is 
deserving of the support and prayers of every Christian philanthropist in 
Christendom. — EDrroR. 



4 

of the smallest kind of country newspaper, its author is sure to tarn out a 
mulatto or quadroon, when the accompanying biographies are referred to. 

By the history of the negro race, it is, therefore, incontrovertibly 
proven, that they are utterly incapable of civilization or development 
beyond the point of slavery. When the starved barbarian is taken from 
the wilds of Africa, clothed icell, fed well, and associated with the whites' 
he quickly acquires a certain degree of health, strength, and intelligence. 
He will quickly ape the white. But there his development ceases. 
Beyond that, in no instance, has he ever gone. Without amalgamation 
with the white race, he remains where he begun, and sinks so soon as 
the superior influence is withdrawn. 

These phenomena are pecuHar to the black race. None of the diversi- 
fied families of the white race exliibit them. To which one of the white 
races could the advantages be given which lie before the negroes of the 
United States, without an immediate operation and proof of its talent and 
its intellectual superiority, in hundreds and thousands of instances ? All 
the white races have been civilized and developed in time, and where 
circumstances have thrown them back into barbarism, they all e:shibit 
capacity for civilization. But the exact contrary is the characteristic of 
the negro race. 

What deduction is to be drawn from these facts ? The plain and 
inevitable deduction is this : that the negi-o is a totally distinct race from 
the Caucasian ; that the negro is the connecting link between man and 
the brute creation ; that the negro race is designed by nature to be 
subordinate to and dependent upon the white or superior races: that 
the negro race is the result of a different act of the Creator from that 
which originated the Caucasian, and is, consequently, beyond the scope 
of those abstract axioms which declare that all races are of one blood 
and have equal rights natural, social, and political. 



[FROM A CORHESPONDENT OF THE NASHVILLE AND 
LOUISVILLE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.] 
"Bible Defence of Slavery, or Origin and History ok the 
Negro Race." — This is one among the multitudinous publications of the 
riay that is richly worthy a careful perusal by every lover of truth and 
justice, reason and religion, virtue and humanity. It is what its title 
imports, a veritable, impregnable defense and vindication of the South, 
her rights and peculiar policy and institutions. It is no "catch penny," 
harbingered by an ignis futuns of a murky imagination and a baser 
cupidity, for purposes of speculation, but a work of masterly abilitj- and 
most profound research. This peculiarity, of itself, apart from its 
relevant connection with a mooted and vexed question, would render it 



a valuable work to the scholar and divine. But, when we take into 
consideration its direct bearing upon the absorbing topic of the day, and 
that it is the production of the ablest divines and profoundest scholars of 
■which the great North, in all her pride and glory, can boast, its intrinsic 
worth, then, becomes magnified a thousand fold. Its authors, in their 
patient researches after truth, have explored the mighty ocean of 
biblical, scientific, and historical lore, in all their heights and depths, 
lengths and breadths, and planted themselves upon a rock not less firm 
and immovable than the adamant of ages. Their own adverse education 
and preconceived opinions vanished before the splendor of their 
investigations, whilst the sordid vampires, of fanaticism and political 
incendiarism are made to coil their serpent heads, and seek refuge in 
their native dens and caves of pauperism and degradation whence they 
come, and where they, nnregenerated, belong as a legitimate right. 



Charleston, Jane 16, 1851. 

Mr. W. S. Brown, — I have your acceptable favor of the 27th ult. before 
me. Since I wrote last, the volume you sent me has come to hand, and 
I have read it with much attention and great gratification. It is an able 
and comprehensive defence of our Institutions, and I think it will be 
received every where with congratulation. I have thoroughly examined 
the book, and regard it as one of the best productions which has ever 
appeared in defence of the South. 

Your book is a favorite in our family, and is, at present, going the 
rounds, for perusal, by every member. 

Very truly and fraternally yours, 

EDWIN HERIOT. 

Ed. of the Southern Home Journal. 



[FROM "THE MONROE DEMOCRAT."] 

Bible Defence of Slavery. — This is the title of a work just issued 
from the press, by W. S. Brown, M.D., Glasgow, Ky. The author 
maintains that the negroes are the decendants of Ham, and, in fulfillment 
of the decree of Heaven, have been, in every age, servants of servants ; 
that they are, mentally, morally, and physically constituted to be such, 
and will be servants in all time to come. These positions are maintained 
by an appeal to liistoi*y, to Revelation, and to the character of tho 
negroes. Time will not peniiit us to enter into any thing like a review of 
this work, but we recommend it to the attention of every man who may 



feei aa iuteresL (as ali necessarily must) ia the all-engrossing sabjects 
of slavery and abolitionism. 

Let every Southern man read this book, and make up his mind 
w^hether slavery is an evil which he should endeavor to extirpate or not. 
If he decides that it is, then, let him aquiesco in Northern policy, and 
more, let him openly advocate it, as honest men at the North do, on the 
ground that it will end in the abolition of slavery. If, on the contrary, he 
come to the conclusion that slavery is not an evil, hut has the sanction of 
high Heaven, (as this work most clearly shows) and, that it has been a 
blessing and not a curse, then, let him fearlessly defend his rights, and 
wage open and manly war upon the policy adopted, expressly and 
avowedly, for the purpose of overthrowing Southern Institutions. 

This book does not touch upon ■party questions as they exist at the 
south. It is simply what it purports to be, a dtfviice of slavery, and a 
very able one too. We hope it will bo universally read at the South, 
and serve, at least, to create harmony of views among southern people. 
Wo have little idea that it will be read at the North. A fanaticism that 
discards the Bible, because it recognizes slavery, is blind and deaf to all 
that can be said on the subject. Buy the hook and read it. Patronize 
those who defend your Institutions. 



[THE FOLLOWING IS FROM SENATOR JAS. E. HARRISON, 
OF MISSISSIPPI.] 

The undersigned takes pleasure in recommending "Bible Defence of 
Slavery," as heing the best production on the subject with which he is 
acquainted. The whole subject is treated in a most masterly manner; 
exhibiting great research and learning, as well as superior biblical 
knowledge. The entire work is replete with hiterest. Every honest 
inquirer after truth should read it. 

JAS. E. HARRISON. 

Aberdeen, Miss. Nov. 'iSih. 1851. 



Another scientific gentleman of distinction, in noticing the boak, says 
of it : " It is a rare work, and every man, in the South especially, ought 
to peruse its pages. Many authors have written upon this subject, in 
times past, but we are convinced that it never has been handled an 
effecinally and learnedly, as in this work. The Authors are clear, lucid, 
and forcible. Their arguments are unique, grand, and veighty. In a 
word, they prove themselves superior Scholars, and men of great ability^ 
in every step they take in the defence of this great subject.'* 



A CHANCE TO DO GOOD 

The Vexed Q,uestion Settled — Bible Defence of Slavert.— 
The work bearing the above title we have carefully examined, and can, 
unliesitatingly, say, that it is the ablest work of the kind we ever saw ; 
and, so far as we have seen or heard, it is without an equal in the 
English language. Being clearly and fairly based upon the Scriptures, 
and confimied by undoubted facts connected with our race, since the 
flood, it is, therefore, a work of immense value to all persons who wish 
to know the truth upon the subject of slavery. And particularly so with 
the people of the South and West, whoso liberty, interests, and lightS) 
sre now being insulted by European and Northern interference. 

W. D. JOURDAN, 
THO. H. M. WINN, 
W. K. WINN, 

A. K. BAGBY, 

B. F. DANIS. 

H. D. JETT. M.D. 
Glasgow, Ky., March 8, 1851. 



The above work contains nearly six hundred pages octavo, neatly 
printed and substantially bound, and will bo furnished to subscribers 
at the very low price of $2 per copy: it being the determination of the 
-ublisher to place a copy in the hands of every genuine friend of truth 
and reason, of the South and her rights. There can be no question of die 
fact, that the well-being of our race, the peace and prosperity of our 
common country ; the protection of our dearest interests of life and 
property, and the security of our firesides and family altars, are more 
intimately connected with the general circul.ation of this work among the 
masses, than with that of any other in existence. Its tendency is, not to 
engender strife or foster error and fanaticism, but to inculcate truth, and 
give security and permanency to those institutions and relations of life 
which have been wisely ordained by God, sanctioned by all human 
experience, and guarantied by the constitution of our common comitry — 
tlie Magna Charta of freedom and human rights. Let, then, every 
friend of his country and of his God, of the South and her rights, of truth 
and reason, of protection to life and property, contribute his mite to its 

support. 

W. S. BROWN, PiibUsher. 
Jan. 14. 1852 Glasi-'ow. Kv. 



[FROM THE '^SOUTHERN KENTUCKY ARGUS."] 
Bible Defence of Slavery.— This is the title of the work of which 
we made bare mention in our last, and promised a more extended notice 
this week. It is not jiossible that positions justified by biblical argu- 
ment, or reasoning deduced from profane history, can be rendered as 
clear and conclusive as demonstrations in mathematics ; but the authors 
let in upon their subject, floods of light, which must have very decided 
and salutary influence upon public sentiment in reference to the 
"peculiar institution" of the South. On examination of this book — 
such an one as the multiplicity and arduousness of business engagements 
would allow — we have found it to be, indeed, what its title imports, a 
Defence of Slavery. It is not, exclusively, drawn from the Holy 
Scriptures, however. The writers, in the light of many pertinent 
circumstances, apart from it. as well as in that of the bible, carefully 
examine the subject of slavery, as it relates to the negro race, and 
gives a more satisfactory account of the origin of black men — of their 
color — of the causes of their state of servitude, and traces of their 
character, as well in ancient as in modern times, dealing en passant, 
many pungent and severe strictures upon that pseudo system of 
philanthropy, or fanaticism, yclept modern abolitionism, which threatens 
dissolution to the cherished Union of the American States. Finally, 
the authors propose a plan of national colonization, that is deemed 
adequate to the removal of the entire free black population of the United 
States, and all that may hereafter become free, in a manner harmonizing 
with the well-being of both races. Such is a succinct statement of the 
main features of the book. 

That the authors are men of the North, had been reared and educated 
there, in the very heart of a community of abolitionists, and, under the 
strong influence of its deep-rooted and bitter prejudices against slavery, 
are considerations that must go a great way in recommending any views 
they may set up in tolerating or justifying the institution. Their 
opinions can but be regarded weighty — infinitely more entitled to 
respectful consideration than would be opinions formed in harmony witli 
ihe prevailing prejudices under which the authors were educated. The 
conflict of sentiment with the precepts of early training, is the strongest 
kind of evidence of its soundness, and of the sincerity of the writers pro- 
mulgating it. These circumstances attending the publication of " Bible 
Defence of Slavery,' ' must, therefore, have the double eft'ect to insure for 
it a wide and increasing demand, and, per consequence, as the disqui- 
sition is very able and convincing, produce a very decided and marked 
effect upon the popular mind in relation to its subject matter. And we 
commend it into the hands of all reading and reflecting men everywhere. 



BRIGHT'S FAMILY PRACTICE. 

A PLAIN SYSTEM 

OF 
TOR 

HI Wil Of FAMII.11S. 



By J. W. BRIGHT, M.D. 



This work embraces all the diseases of Men, Women, nnd Children, and a ( 
plain system of Midwifery ; and contains the experience of the Autlior, 
more Uian thirty years extensive practice of Medicine, and is the only woik now i 
before the public which contains all the New and Approved Remedies, found in ' 
the standard works an! medical periodicals in Euro|)e and America, toi.'et!ier < 
with the experience and approved praciice of the best authors, upon which the 
.successful treatment of the present forms of disease so much depends. It is the [ 
only work now before the public conlaiuin<^ a full description of the new, as well 
as the old diseusjs of tiie United Slates. The .Symiitoms of each disease, in all 
its stages, are so minutely described, and the directions for givinjr and working 
off the medicines are so plain, that uo one can fail to follow them ; the remedies ( 
all being put down in plain Ens'lish, in their appropriate places. It also contains i 
a Family Xlaleria Medic i, wiih Receipts for preparing all the Family Medicines i 
in common use, with directions how to use them, and about thirty plates, mostly 
of medicinal plants, with their descri|)ti<m. medical properties, and uses. 
Recipes for preparing Tooth I'owders. Colocrne Waters, and Medicines for ' 
Cleansing and Beautifying the Skin, and many other rtcipes, useful to Farmers ' 
and Mechanics: recipes for preparin;' and using the remedies for t!ie cure of the 
Poisons of Arsenic, Copper, Lead. Mercuri/, Opium, Morphine, Gnllic and. 
Pru.i.sic Acid-i ; al.so, directions for preparing a variety of Diet for the Sick The 
w^ork is got up in the most fashionable style, with marble ed^res, and bound in line , 
leather, with spring back, especially for the use of families. The whole is 
contained in 941 royal octavo pages, and will be delivered to subscribeia at Five 
Dollars per copy. 

Eecommendations from the Medical Faculty of the Uiiive-sity ! 
of Louisville. 

Louisville, .^uj^s*, 1S47. 

Dear Sh- — Ilaving bestowed on an atten'ive exair.in.ation of your ••KA>I1LY PKAC- 
TICE'" all the leisure I can command, I am of the opinion that, wi-h the adJi'ion of the ' 
word WELL, which I .shall take the liberty of making. I cannot better characterize it than 
you yourself have done, in your very mojest and appropriate tille-page. "A I'laiu System 
of Medical Practice, well adapted to the uise of Kamilie-!.'' 

The work appears to me to be thus ad.ipeil. for the following reasons: — 

1. The matter it contains is .sound and judicious, ami .uSiciently full and diTcrsificd for i 
all the ca.'ies of disease in which families themselves should attempt to employ it. When 
more is needed, recourse should be had to professional aid. 

2. The descriptions of diseases are generally correct, and their changes ami st.ages well 
marked ; and the style of the work is so simple and perspicuous, that no oue at all 
acquainted with the Kiiglish composition can misappreliend its meaning. 

3. The compa.ss of the work, embracing as it does every form of di.se.i.se which an 
American Physician, in full practice, can expect to encounter in a lifetime. Is su.ticiently 

' ample. 

\Vi.-;hing it, therefore, the reception and rircula'ion. to which it appears to me to be ( 
entitled, 1 am, very respectfuUv, your obedient servant. 

Cir. CALDWELL. M. D., 
Professor >f the Tnstitu'e.s of Medicine and Medical .lurispmdcnce. 
P. S. Wcnj it not th.it comj irisons are apt to be held exceptionable, 1 would not 
hesi'atfl to .say, that I consider your "Family Pr.ictic£'' the most valuable work of the \ 
sort of which I have any knowledge. C. 0. ^ 



I have examined Dr. Brighfs " FAMILY PRACTICE," and feel anHureJ that it is, on the i 
whole, well adapted to the purpose for which it is written. I think the work is ralculatel 
to be cmint'n'lj useful S. D. GUOSS, M. I)., Professor of Surgery. 

August, 1847. 



I concur in the estimate ezprassed aboTe by Dr. Gross. 

n. MILLER, M. D., 
ProfeMOr of Obstetrics and Biseasee of Women and Children. 



I have examined "BRIGIIT'S FAMILY PRACTICE" with some care, and find that U ^ 
ifl plainly written, and contains much tlia,t ia vaJuable. I believe the work i« cajcula ed to ( 
do much good. J. COBB, M. D., Professor of Anatomy. 



I have examined Dr. Eright's ''FAMILY PRACTICE," and find it what it purports 
to be — a plain system of Medical Practice — which I can conscientiously recommend to i 
families. L. P. YA^DELL, M. D., Professor of Physiology. 



From Practising Physicians in Louisville. 

I have examined with rare Dr. Brighfs " FAMILY PRACTICE," and find it a valuable 
work, well suied to the use of Planters and Families. It is plain and comprehensive, and 
the treatment coufomiable to the latest and most approved practice, and it alTorda me 
much pleasure to recommend it to the public. J. 0. GUNN, M. D. 

I have examined " BRIGIIT'S FAMILY PRACTICE." The wort is not only the result 
of long experience, but a very judicious selection of the latest and most approved Medical 
authors, and will, no doubt, ba of great service to families. W C. GALT, M. D. 



I have examined "BRIGIIT'S FAMILY PRACTICE," and do most unhesitatingly 
recommend it as a plain, practical work — useful to families. C. PIKTLK, M. D. 



' I have examined "BRIGIIT'S FAMILY PRACTICE," and take great pleasure in 
recommending it as a valuable work, suitable to the use of Families. Having pruciised 
.Medicine fif een years in Mississippi and Louisiana, I view this work as belter adapted to 
the diseases of that region than any work of the kind I have ever m-en. ' 

KICUAKD ANGEL, M. D. 



Wo have examined Dr. Brighfs "FAMILY PRACTICE," and feel no hesitation in 
recommending it to the public, as a book containing a variety of u.^eful and valuable 
iufonna'ion. It is entirely practical in its designs; all technicalities are avoided, .so as 
to render the author's meaning clear and plain to the unprofessional reader, for whom it 
is more paricularly intended than for the profession, though the latter, and particularly 
the medical student, might incre;ise his store of practical knowledge by a careful perusal 
of its pages. Dr. Bright's instruments for the .application of caustic to the mouth of the 
uterus are ingenious, and no doubt will save the practitioner much trouble, and the 
patient a great deal of unnecessary pain. V. E. EU'l.VG. 51. D. 

Louisville. June, 1S47. W. T. II. WINLOCK, M. D. 



I have ex.amined " BRIGIIT'S FAMILY' PRACTICE," and find in it plain and hapomnt i 
practical principles in medicine, well adapted to the use of families. 

wM. A. McDowell, m. d. 



I have examined " BRIGIIT'S FAMILY PRACTICE," and take pleasure in recommend 
ing it to all per.-ons as a valuable work — in particular to faBiilies in the country. 

LouisvUle, June, 1847 J. \V. KNIGIIT, M. D. 



We have examined the medical wDrk written by J. W. Bright, and take pleasure in 
recouUieuding it to the public, as a work well calculated for the ufe of f;imilies. 

JOHN M. TALBOT, M. D. 
LouiBTJUe, June 18, 1847. ',3 W U. WAKEFIELD, M. D. 

Dr. Brisiit : Dear Sir — I have looked into your work at i<ttch moments an my urgent 
labors for the season would afford me. It appears to be a work of great research, and ie 
doubtless one of high merit. It Ls my wish that the reading public may be most tUo- 
roughly sati.sfied of the high appreciation put up«in it. B. \V. DUDLEY, M. D., 

Lexiiig'on, Ky., Feb. 5. 1848. Prof, of Surgery in Transylvania Univer8i>.y. 



From Physicians in Memphis. 



After a careful examination of Dr. Urighfs " KAMILY PRACTICE," I havB no hssita- 
tiou ill saying, that the practical precep ,s recommended by the Auttior arc better adapted 
to tlie treatment of di''":i.<e, a.» it prevails at the Soutliwcst, than luy other work ol a .sim- 
ilar characer, wirh which 1 am aoijuainted. GEO. 11 Ul{ V\T, M. D., 

i'rofessor of Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Memphis Medical CoUejjo. 



From the cursory examination which I have been enabled to make of Dr. Brighfs work , 
)n the Practice of Physic, 1 hare no hesitation in saying, that it i.^ the best p^()duc^iou ©f ( 
its kind now published. E. F. WATKliNS, W. D 

Memphis, Sept. 1, 1847. 



We have examined Dr. Bright's " PLAIN SYSTEM OF MEDICAL PKACTICE," and i 
are jia.'isfied that i; i.-< better call ulated for a safe j;uide to Fauillie.s — especially those remo e < 
from a scien;itic physician — than any O'her work on Domestic Practice. W'c can therefore 
cUcerfully recommend it as a plain and valuable work , in the main, well adapted to the < 
purposes designed. LKWIS SHANKS, M. D. 

Memphis, Sept. 1, 1847. JNO. U. FKAYSKU, M. D. 



From Physicians in Illinois. 

ir.iTingbcen requested to examine '-nKIGin'S FA.MILY PRACTICE," T have satisfied \ 
myself 'hat it is superior to any work of the kind which h;is met my co*ice, both in its 
descrip ion of diseases and principles of treatment. IIE.N'KY W'lNO, .M. I)., 

March 6. 1848. Prof, of Mat. Med., in Jacksonville Med. Coll., 111. 



TO THE PURLTC— Tl.aving examined Dr. Bright's " FAMILY PRACTICE OF MEDI- 
CINE" iittenfively, I have no hesitanon in stating, that it is the best work of the kind now 
ex'ant in the English language, and is admirably adapted to the wants of wes'ern people. 

Lexington, Morgan Co., lU., March 8, 1848 C. U. KNIGllT, M. D. 



IS EMPHATICALLY THE BOOK FOR EVERY 
FAMILY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

1^^ AGENTS WANTED in every county of each State. Very lartre 
profits are allowfii, and encrirelic men have made from $oOU to $2,000 per aiinui» 
by sellin- BRIGHI' £3 PllACTICK. 

. A Cash Capital of Eig^hty or One Hundred Dollars is requisite, 
a.s the Publishers well exclusively tor cash, to avoid ch8rL;ing an extra profit ou 
those who pay. to make up (or losses from those who do not pay. Conse<iuentlv. 

I in nr) case wiil books be forwarder) un Hour ihk Money in ha.nd. Persons 

J wishing to have au agency, wi.l address ilie Pubhshers. 



MOHTON & GRISWOLD. Poblishcrs, 

LOUISVILLE. KY 



REVISED AND ENLARGED 

EDITION OF 

GOO D III C H'S 

SCHOOL HEADER. 



The following are supposed to be some of the peculiar excellencies 

of this SEfilES, as a whole. 
1. Completeness, embracing all I profusion, in order to interest and exciti 



tliat is required by the pupil troni the 
Alphabet lo the highest degree of ac- 
cwmplishiuent in the art of reading. 

Comprehensiveness, — includ- 
ing all the approved helps and lacilities 
botli for teacher and learner. 

3. Progression, step by step in 
on easy path, w it liout confusion, breaks, 
or other iui pediments. 

4. Simplicity and manliness of 
sentimei.t. whii h con.'-titute the charm 

I of Mr. Goodrich's sty le, acknowledgfd 
wherever the Eiiglisli language is read. 

5. Orig'inality, not a line having 
been borrowed from any other series; 
while every other reader oi late date 
has taken more or let's, and generally 
without ackaowledgmeiit, fmm them or 
other compositions by the same author. 

6. The Illustrations, of the most 
beautiful character, introduced with 



the young mind, and develop its per 
ceplive taculties. 

7. Mechanical Execution— the \ 

paper being white and tliick, the t\ pe ( 
large and clear, and the binding ueati 
and substantial. ( 

8. Cheapness — being sold at lower 
prices tlian works of interior auiiiUiS,. 
and less merit , 

9. Rhetorical Exercises — afford- 
ing most copious practical lessons in 
enunciation, articulation, inflection, em- 
phasis, and accent 

10. Moral Tendency — mcnlcatingi 
by fiaiiliar precepts and pleading illus- 
trations, a sense of justice, a leeling of 
kindly charity, a reverence for religion, ( 
a regard for the rights, feelings, inter- 
ests and characters of others, a love of 1 
the works of nature, and a reverent* 
alfectiou for their beneliceut Author. 



GOODRICHS FIRST SCHOOL READER 

72 pages^ 18/no. 



1. It has sixty-nine beautiful engrav- 
ings of simple but very interesting 
subjects. 

2. It begins with very short words, 
in very slion sentences, accomiianj iug 
an approijriate engraving. In this 
respect the author has pursued the 
plain originally used by him many years 
since in "Peter Parley's Primer." and 
subseiiuently limited and copied by 
other books. 

3 It contains eighteen lessons in 
articulation, comprising all the vowel 
sound.'i, based on the [>riiiciple of teach- 
inir one thing- only at a time, and 
making the pupil perfect in that one 
ihiag, by frequcnt repetition 

4. Precedinir each reading lesson is 
a spollin;,' exercise, containing the more 
ditKcalt words. 



5. In the lessons. Polysyllables are ( 
nrUhcr accented nor divided, for several ( 
rea.><ons. 1. Words cannot be divided i 
without often misleading. 2. Thepi.pil' 
should leani to read words as he will i 
afterwards meet with tliem in other* 
books. This last reason apjilies to* 
the marks sometimes used to dis- 
tinguish the various sounds of the | 
vowels. 

6. It is entirely original, being writ- 
ten with the racy, genial and manly 
simplicity peculiar to the author. 

7. A knowledge •f points and stops 
is given in the course of the book in \ 
familiar language. 

8. The type is beautifully clear and ( 
distinct. 



G0DSH2CHS SSIDJISD S3II30L RSAD3R. 

144 jjayeis. 18y/io. 



1. This work, formerly published as 
I the First Reader, liaviiiy been revised, 
) enlarged aii.l iiu|)roved, auii beini; now 
preceded by a new iiiiroductory vo.uiiie, 
^ is called the cjectmd Reader. 
{ 2. It uoutaiud about titty beautiful 
eiigrav:ny:s. 

J. The lessons are progressive, 
rather harder than in thii First Reader, 
le»s so tliaii ill ihe Third. 

4. It contains 28 lessons on articula- 
tion, comprising all tlie consonant 
sounds ot the language — with a view 
to iJiiiduce by repetition of one thing at 
a liiue, tlie attainnieL,ts ot a fuU, clear, 
(listiuct euuuciaiiou. 



5. Preceding each lesson is a Spell- 
ing Exercise, conlaiuing the most dilK- 
cult words. 

6. CAuestions follow each lesion, de- 
signed to ensure a thorough undersland- 
int; of the subject. These may be 
multiplied by the judicious teacher. 

7. A familiar expluuation is given of S 
piLnctufUiuiL.urliculalt'ttL,eiiiphusis. iS^-c. } 

8 Its lessons cannot be surpas.sed 
by any in the language, in jioiiit of 
adaptation to the waiits of young 
learners. 

9. Thw type is large and very clear, 
while by a coiupacl anangement, many 
new lessons have been iiiserted. 



GOODRICH'S THIHD SCHOOL READER, 

218 paycs, 18;?io. 



'. This work, originally published as 
the .Second Reader, havu^g been revLsed 
and enlarged, le now called the "Third 
Reader. ' 

•2. It contains a great variety of 
beautiful engravings. 

3. The les.-oas are progressive, carry- 
in.' the learner onward, step by step. 

4. It contains lessons on articulation, 
arranged upon the pniiciple ol leaching 
one thiiiir at a time, and of coiUiiiuul 
rspehliun. 

Preceding each lesson is a spelling 
exercise, wilii the words properly 
divided. 



6. Following each les.'son are qaes- 
tions to excite and interest the pupil. 

7. Much use! ul intoiniation'is given ( 
respecting the ditleient kinds ol't^pe^ 
used in printing, with lessons in iiultci 
tcilem, acnpi , dfC. 

8. To ensure greater interest in the | 
lessons, tliei-e is a continuity of narra- ' 
tive between many of the lessons, ' 
while they are also coinidete in them- 
selves, su as to be read separately. 

y Pretixed to each lesson is a list] 
of the inosi common and vulgar errors ( 
of pi •nuuciation. 



GOODRICH S F^UR7H SCHOOL 

240 pages ^ \2mo. 



HEADER. 



1. This work, ongmally published as 
t'le Tliird, having been revised, iin- 
poved and eiilargeil to nearly double 
its furniir contents, is now the Fourth 
Reader. 

2. In this, as in all the others, while 
many facilities iire ottered to the pro- 
gross of the pupil, it is not by taking 
away the necessity of exertion, but by 
brin^'ing his taculties into play, and 
inducing him cheerfully and ellicieutl\ 
to help himself 

3. An exercise in definitions precedes 
eai:h lesson, explaii.i.ig the meaning of 
iihe words as used in the context. 

4. Rules lor Reading are pretixed to 
tiie hook. These rules are simple, in- 
rtiUi!;il)le. and f.racticni. and their elli- 



ciency ensured by a peculiar system of! 
(pustions altuchi d to the lessons. 

0. It is abundantly Qlustraled with] 
beautiful engravings 

6. Errors of pronunciation are pointed ( 
out, and <jucstions asked in connexion i 
with each lesson. 

7 Appended to many of the les.sons < 
arc remarks of an explanatory or critical J 
character. J 

8 li contains exercises in Elocution j 
of a most useful au<l practical kind. * 

9. For simplicity, interest, animation, 
pura moral tendency, and beauty ot 
st\le and sentiment, a more delightful, 
body of reaoing lessons was never j 
belore brought together. 



Goodrich's Fifth School Reader. 



3^4 pages, I2ii)0. 



1. This work, formerly the Fourth 
Reader, having been revised, improved, 
and enlarged to nearly double its former 
contents, in now the Fiftli Reader. 

'■i. By means of a large page, as large, 
in fact, as an ordinary ontavo page, 
with clear, compact type, and a neat 
arrangement, m ar y twice the matter 
is given of ordinary works, at same 
price. 

3. An exercise in Spelling and Defi- 
ning precedes each lesson. This exer- 
cise contains the words that the learner 
is least likely to know. The detinitions 
of upwards of three thousand words, in 
the sense in which they are used in the 



context, are found in this and the pre 
ceding book. 

4. The le.'isons afford a selection nf 
the very best extracts in the Ki.^lish 
language, and comprise more than usujii 
of the highest eti'orts of modern and 
living masters. 

5. It corjtains an ample number o 
pages devoted to rules &ad exercises iu 
Elocution. 

6. By a new arrangement, the se 
quence of the lessons has been made 
more nuiformly progressive 

7. The interests of religion, morality, 
and good manners, have always been 
carefully cunsidered »u the selection. 



S. G. Goodrich's Primary Historical Series. 

FIVE VOLS.. EACH 216 pp., 18mo. 

Parley's Primary History of North America, comprising the United 
States, with nuiices of Mexico, Canada, A.c. 

Parley's Primary History of Sonth America, 

Parleys Primary v istory of Europe 
' Parley s Primary History of Africa, in preparation. 
• Parley's Primary History of Asia, including BIBLE HISTORY, in prep. 

These handsome little books ft>rm a series of primary histories. The mecban 
ical execution is very creditable to the publislters. The following peculiarities 
render them especially an i table for liei^inneis, for who.se use they are intended. 

The remarkable abundance and beauty of the pictorial illustrations. 

The use of maps in the text, thus uniting geography witli history. 

The striking simplicity and force of the style, which is also chaste and finished. 

The freshness with which all the topics are mvested. 

The introduction of new material, wanting not only in ordinary school books. 
\ but even in elaborate historical woiks. 



NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION 



^lllifll 



A COLLECTION OF TUNES AND HYMNS 

For the use of Worshipping Assemblies and; 
Sunday Schools. 

NUMERAL EDITION.— Compiled from many Authors, by SILAS W.J 
LEONARD and A D. FILLMORE. Revised bv Rev. \V ri. GUNN, ol Ky. 
Rev. THOS. HARRISON, of Ohio, and by the AUTHORS. 

It is thercfare both a Hymn Book and Tune Book in one. 

Bound in Sheep, or Extra Cloth, 7.5 cts. I Bound in Super Gilt Cloth $1 2 

Morocco, gilt, $1 00 I '• Turkey Gilt Cloth 2 Oi 



SCHOOL GRAMMARS. 



The Scries consists of Two Parts, 
I. BUTLER'S INTKODUGTORY LESSONS IN 

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.— For Beginners, 
n. BUTLER'S PRACTICAL GRAMMAR. 



Instead of offering to the public their own commendations of these books, the 
publishers have the pleasure of inviting attention to the following conimunicatioas: 

1. From Rev J. M'Ci.intock. D.D., who is well known throughout the United 
Sihtes as one of the most accomplished scholars and skilful cilucatois. As a 
professor in the hiijhest institutions of learning, as the author of a most successful 
series of classical text books, and as editor of the Quarterly Review published 
by the Northern Methodist Episcopal Church, in ihe city of New York, bis 
rejtutation is as wide as the country. 

'• RuTLsa's "Practical Gbammar o? tbb Exglish T.AXonAOE,' is an exceedingly well- 
ennreivej and wcll-execu'ed book. It is 8cientilic, not only in its groundwork (whicli 
every elementitry book ought to be), but aluo in its practical methods and devices, where 
euipirieism i.i too of en substi'u'ed for science. As every le.^.'-on can be put to use at once, 
the learner makes real progress with every page. I have seen no Elementary English 
(jrammar that pleases me better — or so wed. 

JOHN M'CLINTOCK 

New Vork, .March 23, 184». 

a. From Georgf. B. E.merson, of Boston, whose commendation o<" any text 
book IS couclusivo evidence of its great merits. He stands ti)remost among the 
nnMi to whom New En^'land looks up, aa the higheot authority in all matters 
coiuiected with euucaiioii. 

Pe-.ir Sir — I have hardly had an hour since I received your note accompanying this 
Gr:iuim.'ir. which was not absolutely bespoken for some other purpose. On looking over 
the book nipidly, I see many tilings in if which are excellent. The detinitions are remark- 
ably simple Jia 1 clear ; the rules are short and comprehensive ; and the arrangement is so 
good, and the exerci.ses so well selected, that a tolerable teacher might be very successful 
in tejichiiig the principles of English (irammar by the aid of it. It forms, moreover, in 
the way it is intended to be useil, what every Grammar for beginners ought to form — an 
introduction to the art and pn«' ice of composi'ion. 

The names of the tenses are far more sensible and philosophical than those found In 
most Gr.Mumars, wtiich indeel are often qui.e wrong and absurd; and the principles of 
Syntax and of Prosody are singularly well condensed, without becoming too abstract and 
obscure. In a future ediaou, 1 hope he will give the same condensation to the rules for 
Punctuation. 1 am, dear sir, very truly yours, 

Oct. 27. 1S45. GEO. B. EMERSON. 

To J. U. falfiey. I.L.D., D.D., Secretary of Stato. 

3. The following are extracts from the opinions of distinguished scholars: — 

Frcrm. E. D. North, Prof, of Rhetoric 
111 Y'lle C'lHem'. 

" It is the most scholarly and philosophic 
Onuumar that I know.'' 

A. D. L 'rrl, of Ohio. 

" I consider it one of tbe best werks we 
have on the subject." 

Ken. li P. Aifiielnte, nf C'tcinna'.i. 

-'An improvement, in every respect, apon 
prectJuig works.'' 

Rich. //. /.ee. Prof. W/n-hinefon Coll. 
" I heartily recommend it as tbe best now 
tt» be got." 



John I^wis. of Llangollen. 
" It is really what iu title indicates — A 
Practical Grammar." 

Jio. B. I.. So'ile. Tcrre Haute. 
'' Far in advance of any now in use." 



E. A. Smith. Sup' I of Cor.im-in Schools, 
Statr/otrn, M Y 
" T prefer it before Brown's and Bui- i 
lions'." 

JI/ost.T Sovlf, North Brd 'ton y 

" My beau ideaj of an English Qrsin- | 
mar." 



BRO \SO:N'S 



on, 



TAINS: 

will Feel and Think he mnst have, and 
cannot do without it. 

ITS COMPARATIVE MERITS. 

I. An examination of its Cnntei:ts 
and tlieir AiTauHenient, will enable one ' 
10 institute a comparison between tlii- 
work. and all others on the same subjeci. ' 

II. It is in perfect hanno'iv 
what is knownof fill that is NATURAL. 
HUMAN, and DFVLNK. . 

Hi. Its ibundatioi'S are deeply laid t 



!Ci. J 
irh) 



Mental and Vocal Philosophy, for the Development 
of the Mind and Body. 

COMrRISl.NO 

1. Two or Three Hundred of the Choicest Anecdotes in our Language. 

2. Three Thousand Oratorical and Poetical Readings and Recitations. 

3. Five Thousand Proverbs, Maxims, isaijings. Themes, and Laconics. 

4. And Several Hundred Elegant Engravings, to Illustrate the Work. 

IT CON 

1. All ihe Principles of Elocution, in 

. accordance with Physiological and Men- I 
tal Science: II. SIX FULL LENGTH 
VIEWS of the Nerves of Organic Life, 
of Respiration, of the Nerves of Seu.^^e 
and Motion, and of all the Muscles and 
Bones of the whole Hody, clothed and 
unclothed: III. Natural and Deformed 
Chests. Positions of Ladies and Gentle- 
men, of their Bodies, Hands, Arm.s, and 
Feet, and ONK HUNDRKD Full 
Length Oratorical and Poetical Por- 

> traits: IV. FORTY-FOUR MOUTHS, 

) showing every position to p oduce the 

"FORTY FOUR sounds of our Lan 
enaae: V. The Common, and New 
Mode of Learninsthe Letters, of Spell- 
ing, and of Teaching Children to Read, 
involving the Science of Phonoloe:y : 
VI. Several Hundred .Jaw or Muscle- 
Breakers, for Training the Voice, while 
" Laui,diter holds both of his 9idK^." 

'»Vir FIK'IY ENGRAVI.NGS, exhib- 

j iting all the Phases of Passion, with 

i appropriate examples to illustrate them: 

) Vlll An immense number of Q. les- 

J tions and Subjects suggested for Ly- 

i ceums, Debating Societies, and Social 

( Parties: IX. TJie lar-rest and b^.-^t c 1- 

flection of RK A DINGS, RKCITA- 

fTIO.NS, and DKCLAM ATiONS, in- 

^ eluding those interspersed with his 

! Popular Lectures, involving every va- 
riety of Thought and Feeling, and 
} ranging from the deepest Tragedy to 
f the highest Comedy ; with something 
y on every page, calculated to m ike une 
t serious and gay : X. IJy being printed i 
( in double columns, and certain kinds of 
{ type, it is designed, on philosophical ' 
'} principles, t • facilitate the arts of Read- ' 
i intr. ^ eniorizing. and the Preservation I 



} of the Eyesight — three imporiaiit points 
I of attaiinnenl : XI. It i^ exprssly pie- 
) pirod foruse in all SCHOOLS. ACAD- 
?-;EM1ES, and COLLKGK.s. Male and 
?. Female; and also widi partiiular ref- 
J.erence to Private Readers and Learn- 
'.ers: XII. I.T aword.it is just such a 
t book, as every one, having heard of it. 



in the Philosophy of Mind and V.iic" — 
Spirit anil Matter; and the principles' 
are of a far-reaching and comprehensive 
iiariire, tending to produce a great rev- ' 
olutioii in the Art of R' nding and , 
.S[)eaking with Science and Effect, and 
the develoimient of (he WHOLE 
MAN, .-^oul. Mind, and Body. 

IV. Irs method is that of ANALYSIS i 
and SY.N'THESIS. ami is altogether! 
Procressive and Practical in its charac- 
teristics. 

V. Although but ONE Elocutioiiary ' 
Principle is presented, specilically, on' 
any page, yet each Eleineu', ary page' 
c'biitaina. incidentally, ALL the Princi- 
ples of Elocution 

VI. 'i'lieae Principles have never J 
been known to fail, when fairhfully ap- ( 
[ilied. to enable one to Read. Speak, 
and Blow tm Wind Instruments, fori 
hours in sucession, without Hoarse- 1 
ness. or injurious Exhaustion ; and they ' 
tend to the Preservation from, and Cure ( 
of Diseases of the Throat raid Lungs, \ 
Dyspepsia and other Complaints inci- > 
dental to Public Speaking, and a Sed- 
ent-.irv Life. 

Vli. It is BRAUTIFULLY and] 
SUHSTA.\TI ALLY got up in the oc- , 
tavo form, of between three and four ( 
hundred [lasfis, and includes a greater) 
variety of Prose and Poetry than any ( 
j other system of Klocutioii. and conta 
I DOUBLK the amount of reading mat- 
ter found ill any similar work in the 
United States, and vet— THE PKi'wE 
IS ONLY ONE DOLLAR. 



3.^-^ 



